Outhouses and Henhouses are the Alternatives to Sun and Sand for UC Students on Spring Break

Alternative Spring Break

Thousands of the nation’s college students will be flocking south over Spring Break, headed for their package deals offering the best of sun and fun on a college student budget. But in a growing trend, thousands of students nationwide are raising hundreds of dollars to travel to destinations that offer the bare basics in living accommodations, and their sweat will come from their work, not just the sun.

The Alternative Spring Break is becoming a growing tradition at the University of Cincinnati. William Harris, director of UC’s Center for Community Engagement, says that by serving the local and global community, students gain an insight into cultures different from their own, plus they develop leadership skills that will last a lifetime. Here are some of the destinations:

CARBONERAS, MEXICO – The UC Center for Community Engagement is organizing a trip to Carboneras, a rustic fishing village, where a group of 25 students will be painting and building outhouses, chicken coops and beds for the community. The students’ lodging accommodations will be in a church dormitory, which UC volunteers helped to paint on Alternative Spring Break last year. Anne Fitzgerald, student coordinator for the Center for Community Engagement, adds that this travel package filled fast. The group will depart from Cincinnati on Saturday, March 20, and return on Saturday, March 27.

SOUTH BEACH, FLA. – The UC student chapter of Habitat for Humanity is sending 30 students to South Beach to assist in building affordable housing. The work will include roofing, drywalling, blocking and framing. Students will depart Cincinnati on Saturday, March 20, and return on Sunday, March 28.

BUNNELL, FLA. – A group of 13 male students representing the Cincinnati Navigators (a UC Christian student organization) will build low-cost housing for families when they volunteer for Flagler Habitat for Humanity. “This is a first-time trip for all who are going, and it’s the first time that I have organized a trip of this magnitude,” says Steve Bragg, a UC junior who’s majoring in secondary education. The group will be staying in area churches with approximately 150 other students nationwide who are participating in the project. They’ll depart Cincinnati on Sunday, March 21, and return Saturday, March 27.

JACKSON COUNTY, KY. – More than a dozen students, among them members of the UC service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega, will travel to eastern Kentucky to work with the Christian Appalachian Project. The Christian Appalachian Project is a non-profit organization that serves the Appalachian regions of Kentucky. Volunteers will build and repair homes in poverty-stricken areas. The group will depart Cincinnati on Sunday, March 21, and return on Saturday, March 26.

NEW YORK, N.Y. – A group of 12 students representing UC and The Ohio State University will join a “Seminar of Peace” as they participate in a trip co-sponsored by the Wesley Foundation United Methodist Campus Ministry at UC and Ohio State’s Summit United Methodist and King Avenue United Methodist churches. Jeanne Smith, associate director for the Wesley Foundation United Methodist Student Center, says the students will explore, connect with, and assist ministries that work for peace and justice. The group will also visit historic United Methodist sites and agencies and visit the United Nations. They’ll depart Cincinnati on Sunday, March 21, and return on Thursday, March 25.

FORT MEYERS, FLA. – A group of 25 students representing the UC Baptist Collegiate Ministry will do outreach in neighborhoods and beachfronts. The students will also spend a good deal of their time in Bible study and worship. The group will depart Cincinnati on Monday, March 29, and return on Saturday, March 27.

ACROSS THE SOUTH – A group of 45 students with the UC African American Cultural and Research Center (AACRC) will be networking with students primarily from historically black universities across the south and learning about different graduate programs. Stops on their tour include Dillard, Xavier and Tulane universities in New Orleans; the University of Florida in Gainesville; the University of South Florida in Tampa; and Morehouse, Spelman and Morris Brown colleges in Atlanta. The students depart Cincinnati on Friday, March 19, and return on Sunday, March 28.

Service-Learning in Costa Rica

Students in a UC College of Business study abroad course will join the Habitat for Humanity Global Village project in Costa Rica over Spring Break. The trip is meant to enable the 12 students to become part of an international experience; learn the language, culture, politics, social issues and economy of Costa Rica; offer service by providing new housing; and work as a team on a service project in a foreign setting.

Honduras International Health Care

Faculty and students from UC’s medical and nursing schools will provide health and dental care to Hondurans April 23-May 2, as part of a program that was begun 12 years ago. The UC health team now travels to a clinic in Honduras three times a year for Shoulder to Shoulder, a nonprofit organization that teams with the UC College of Medicine. The clinic was constructed with the help of the partnership. It provides health care, dental and nutrition services to an area with 20,000 people living in one of the poorest and most remote areas of Honduras in the State of Intibuca, which is close to El Salvador. The trip leader is Andrea Lindell, dean, College of Nursing.

Honors Scholars Live Their Literature Over Spring Break

LONDON BOUND – A group of 12 of UC’s Honors Scholars will be off to England March 19-26 to experience the real-life settings of writer Jane Austen’s literary classics, Northanger Abbey, Emma and Persuasion.  The course, Scopophilia: The Gaze Upon Jane Austen’s Landscape, will take students to London, Bath, Winchester and Chawton and will include tours of the homes where Jane Austen lived and died. The students will be based in London, where they’ll view landscape paintings at Tate Britain and The National Gallery. UC Professor Janet Reed says previous trips have taken students along the same streets that the characters spoke about in Austen’s novels. “When we visited Austen’s house in Chawton, we could see where she sat at her small writing table and how she could quickly slip her writing into the drawer when the purposely-left squeaking door alerted her that someone was entering,” Reed says.

CONROY COUNTRY – A group of 14 Honors Scholars will explore the ecology and landscape of coastal South Carolina March 19-23 as they visit the settings of contemporary writer Pat Conroy. Students are studying the novels, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides and The Water is Wide to prepare for the trip. The course, Conroy Country and the Southern Experience, is team-taught by UC Professors Billie Dziech and Mary Fox. The students will take an extensive tour of Charleston, S.C. where their stops will include a tour of The Citadel, the setting of Conroy’s The Lords of Discipline. Other stops will involve visiting plantations dating back to the Civil War. Students will also take a walking tour of Beaufort, S.C. By becoming familiar with the ecology and the geography of the region, the course is meant to enhance the student readers’ appreciation and understanding of the setting and imagery used in Conroy’s novels and how they influenced his stories, plus, it will help students develop an understanding of the environmental challenges affecting the region.

International Co-op Program

Sixteen engineering majors and one business major will begin the two-week final component of their intensive language study of either Japanese or German before they start their co-op jobs that run through September. A group of eight engineering students will then start their co-op jobs in Kobe, Japan, where they’ll work for such companies as P & G in Kobe, GE Engine Services, and Emerson, an electronics company in Tokyo that is hiring its first UC student. In Germany, 17 UC students will go to work for companies that include BMW, Bosch, Hewlett-Packard, MTU (a division of DaimlerChrsyler aerospace), Siemens and other companies. The UC students will depart Cincinnati on Saturday, March 20. Their co-ops begin Monday, April 5 and end in mid-September.

Co-op Honor Society

Three UC students will travel to the University of Austin for the Kappa Theta Epsilon Co-op Honor Society Convention March 25-28. The students are organizing an official KTE chapter on UC’s campus, where cooperative education – the practice of alternating a student’s studies with paid work related to their major – was founded at UC in 1906.

International Business Capstone in Queretaro, Mexico

Twenty-three UC business students will spend their first night in Mexico City, visit the pyramids and then head to Queretaro where they will be exploring the different marketing and management practices of different companies March 20-28 as part of this three credit-hour capstone experience. The students will be staying with host families to learn more about the Mexican culture.

International Seminars Program, College of Business

Aachen, Germany – Thirteen students will travel to this city in northwest Germany to explore the history and culture of German management, the legal and political environment in Germany (and their impact on business), the impact of the unification of Germany, and European financial integration. The students will be abroad March 22-26.

Linz, Austria and Prague, Czech Republic – Twelve UC students will join a group of Austrian students March 18-26 to explore Austrian and Eastern European culture and history, cross-cultural communication and management and development of the market economies of Central and Eastern Europe in the post-communist era.

Toulouse, France and Barcelona, Spain – Fourteen UC students will spend their first five days in Toulouse, then they’ll travel to Spain when they explore the culture, history, economics and business practices of the European Union. The students will be overseas March 18-26.

The University of Cincinnati Institute for Global Studies and Affairs (IGSA) provides partial support for Study Abroad projects, along with many college academic departments. Prior to their departure, IGSA also provides students with the latest information on security overseas and safety measures.

New York/Washington, D.C.  MBA Program

Sixteen College of Business MBA students, including some international students, will travel to New York City to visit companies that focus on financial services and the real estate industry. In Washington, D.C., the students will tour the Capitol and meet with state senators, lobbyists and international trade specialists. Their trip runs from March 22-26.