Students Replace Suds, Sand and Surf with Service
Contact: [email protected]
While most college students head for the surf and sand this spring break, a group of Vanderbilt University students are looking forward to a very different experience - they'll be working with Washington, DC, area youth whose lives have been affected by AIDS. In conjunction with MetroTeen AIDS, Food and Friends and Pediatric AIDS/HIV Care, the students will tutor children with AIDS, give presentations to high school students on prevention and deliver meals to homebound AIDS patients.
More than 300 Vanderbilt students will volunteer at 25 different alternative spring break sites March 6-14. Sites around the country and in Peru, Mexico and Canada focus on a multitude of issues, from youth violence to AIDS to environmental preservation. The following are a small sample of alternative spring break sites:
* In Nashville, Tenn., a women only site will focus on projects that promote the empowerment of women to improve or rehabilitate themselves. Participants will work with several organizations, including the Magdalene Project, which helps Nashville prostitutes leave the streets. * In Daufuskie, S.C., volunteers will work with the Gullah community, which is struggling to hold onto its African ancestral roots. The students will help restore historic sites and will tutor at a local school where author Pat Conroy taught in the 1960s. His time on the island served as the basis for The Water is Wide. * In Santa Cruz, Calif., students will work with Barrios Unidos, a national organization aimed at curbing Hispanic gang violence by educating youth about their cultural roots and teaching them skills to expand their options.
Now in its 13th year of offering the trips, Vanderbilt was one of the first universities in the country to sponsor alternative spring breaks. Vanderbilt is also home to Breakaway, a national clearinghouse for alternative spring breaks.
If you are interested in joining the students on one of the sites, or learning more about Vanderbilt's alternative spring break program, please contact Amy Pate at (615) 343-3209 or by e-mail at [email protected] . Pictures from last year's program and other news about alternative spring break are on the Web at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/News/asb98/index.html .
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