Students find altruistic alternative to spring break
partying
Published
12:00 am PDT Saturday, March 22, 2008
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section,
Page A1
Spring break has finally arrived for UC Davis senior Dan
Xie, and with the specter of adult life looming before her, she is welcoming the
week as her "last hurrah of fun" as a college
student.
There will
be no mai tais on the beach. No throngs of sunburned bodies to herald the
breaking of spring. Only miles and miles of California road, under the speeding wheels of
her bicycle.
Xie, a 20-year-old San Diego native, will pedal away her vacation
along the route of the proposed high-speed rail line, trying to raise awareness
about a project she thinks could be an answer to global warming.
To her, the
call of activism was much stronger than the call of Cancún, Mexico. "When it comes down to it, I
could be doing something productive and fun, or just fun," Xie
said.
She is part
of a generation increasingly choosing the former.
This month,
an estimated 50,000-plus college students across the country have opted for
alternatives to the sinful spring break glorified by MTV and the "Girls Gone
Wild" franchise, according to Break Away, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that serves
as a resource for universities organizing alternative
breaks.
"From what
we see, that is the norm," said
Samantha Giacobozzi, 23, programs director for Break
Away.
Her group,
founded by two Vanderbilt University students in 1991, has seen a 10 percent to
15 percent increase in participation each year for the past five years – which
is as long as the group has been tracking data.
Several
themes emerge among alternative spring break programs, Giacobozzi said,
including poverty and education. Recently, student activists have expanded their
interests to include immigration issues, AIDS in Africa and prison reform. Last year, Break Away hosted a
planning session about service in refugee
resettlements.
"If you can
think of any social issue or social problem in the United
States or internationally, these students are
typically interested in it," Giacobozzi.
Even MTV
has gotten on the altruistic bandwagon. The network's Think branch, launched to
promote youth involvement, helped the United Way jump-start its Alternative
Spring Break program in 2006.
That
program has grown from a fledgling group of 100 students to this year's
600.
Randy
Punley, who oversees the program, said this is a motivated generation. Events
like Sept. 11, the war in Iraq and natural disasters like
Hurricane Katrina have "perhaps first made them angry, and second of all, made
them want to do something about it."
Many
alternative spring break programs focus on dramatic examples of devastation or
social ills in places like New Orleans or
Africa. A budding program at California State University, Sacramento, however, keeps the focus here at
home.
In its
second year, the program is struggling to gain traction. Only 30 of the school's
28,000 students have signed up so far this year , volunteering with
organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and the Sacramento Food Bank. (Spring
break begins March 31.)
"We have
enough need in our local community," said Brendan McVeigh, a coordinator at the
campus Community
Engagement Center. "We don't need to go far, far away
to make things happen."
UC Davis
hasn't had an alternative spring break program in several years. But that has
not stopped students from finding their own outlets for
service.
Brandy
Dunlap, 19, will travel to Tijuana next week with the Davis Christian
Fellowship to build homes and work with orphans. She said she is proud to go to
Mexico for service, "rather than to
party it up."
She might
like to return – but "for good clean fun, not like 'Girls Gone Wild,' " she
said. "That's not really my thing."
For a lot
of students, though, spring break still just means going home to bask in the
luxuries of free laundry, mom's cooking and endless hours of
sleep.
Davis student Russ Sakai, 21, will travel to the mountains
east of Santa
Barbara to recuperate on his family's ranch. A
hedonistic, drunken break might have appealed to his underage self, he said, but
not now.
"Right
after finals, you just want to do nothing and have no responsibility," he
said.
DAN
XIE
Age:
20
Hometown:
San
Diego
Year:
Senior
Spring
break plans: Xie will cycle from San Francisco to
San Diego - with stops in Sacramento, Stockton,
Bakersfield, Los
Angeles, Riverside and Anaheim - to raise
awareness about the need for a high-speed rail
line.
BRANDY
DUNLAP
Age:
19
Hometown:
Stockton
Year:
Sophomore
Spring
break plans: Dunlap will go to Tijuana, Mexico, to build homes and work with
orphans.
RUSS
SAKAI
Age:
21
Hometown:
Visalia
Year:
Senior
Spring
break plans: Sakai will visit his family ranch
east of Santa
Barbara.
About
the writer:
- Call The Bee's Kim
Minugh, (916) 321-1038.
