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Alternative breaks expand offerings
by Sally
Acharya
The Vietnam War ended before they were born, but the students who
gathered last week to talk about their impending trip to the once
war-torn country agreed they feel a bond with the place where American
bombs rained and nearly 60,000 Americans died.
They’ll be in Southeast Asia next week on one of AU’s
expanded schedule of alternative breaks that includes trips to Zambia,
India, Honduras, Cuba, and Chiapas, Mexico.
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| David
Lamb |
“I envy
you greatly, going to Vietnam,” Los Angeles Times reporter
David Lamb told the soon-to-be global travelers at an informal luncheon.
“I guarantee you it’s one of the most fascinating, exhilarating
places you’ll ever go.”
The award-winning foreign correspondent whose posting in Vietnam
resulted in the highly praised 2002 book Vietnam, Now spoke to the
students about what to expect on their nine-day trip.
Some 60 students across AU are preparing for spring breaks that
combine world travel with service activities, such as AIDS education
in Zambia and volunteering at an orphanage in Vietnam.
The alternative spring breaks are part of a tradition that began
many years ago with domestic service trips, but expanded internationally
five years ago when university chaplain Joe Eldridge guided a group
to Honduras to rebuild houses after a hurricane. In the last several
years, “It’s definitely exploded in terms of interest,”
says Andrew Willis ’04, who has twice coordinated the trip
to Chiapas, Mexico, and is coordinating this year’s Cuba trip.
Two longer trips of two to three weeks each are being organized
during the summer, to Zambia for the second year in a row, and to
the Tibetan exile capital of Dharamsala in northern India.
Last year in Zambia, students worked in such settings as AIDS orphanages
and centers for street children. The trip is guided by Christy Nichols,
International Student Services, a three-year Peace Corps volunteer
in Zambia.
Organized through the Alternative Break Club, trips include a service
component. Students heading to Cuba are tabling this week at Mary
Graydon Center for educational and other basic supplies from ballpoint
pens to aspirin to notebooks. Resident assistants in Letts and Anderson
Halls are competing to see which floors can earn the most donations.
Some students on the trips also choose to earn one credit from the
School of International Service (the course is called Topics in
Global Social Justice) by following a site-specific curriculum with
a reading list and producing a research paper.
Most are also organized by the students themselves, who recruit
participants, do outreach, negotiate contracts, and plan the itinerary.
“It’s a huge commitment,” Willis says of the process,
which can take around nine months. “It’s up to the participants
to decide what we’re doing, and it’s really shaped by
the collective process. It’s a unique experience. When do you
get to decide your own curriculum?”
Another group of students will be going to the Cherokee Nation in
North Carolina. Though not officially an Alternative Spring Break,
it will also combine service work with cultural sharing. Organized
by the AU Methodists, it is being joined as well by international
students as part of International Student Services’ program
of “road trips” to explore aspects of American culture.
Chi Alpha Christian fellowship is also taking a group to Guatemala
to work in an orphanage.
Participants in the AU trip to Vietnam will spend time with college
students from National University Ho Chi Minh City (still better
known as Saigon), travel to the Mekong Delta, and visit the CuChi
tunnels, the vast 120 mile network of underground tunnels used by
Viet Cong guerillas who now, ironically, work as tour guides. Remarks
Lamb, “It’s intriguing to meet someone who, 40 years ago,
he’d have shot you and you’d have shot him.”
“One of the things we’re trying to do is further our efforts
to set up a study abroad program in Vietnam,” says trip coordinator
Todd Sedmak of Media Relations. A potential study abroad program
would be in conjunction with National University.
This will be the second spring break to Vietnam, where the 11 student
participants will volunteer at an orphanage—along with a group
of staff and faculty who have also opted to come. Michael Mass,
director of the University Honors Program, will make the trip; so
will Linda Mass of the Academic Support Center, and Alayne Trachewsky
of University Publications, and her husband.
“One of the things that was really attractive to me,”
Trachewsky says, “was the chance to interact with the local
people.” Jeremy Taylor ’06 agrees. “I think there’s
a kind of connection between America and Vietnam,” Taylor says.
“I think everyone going on this trip would say the same thing.”
Photo by
Jeff Watts
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