The Rite of Spring Break

It's spring break, let's party!! Spring break is a chance to get away from studies and head someplace tropical like the Florida Keys with friends. It's a time to let loose and to escape the stress and pressures of college life. Usually it's a week long party, but some college students this year are doing something different. Here's a look at what some college students are doing for their spring break.

1. La Sierra University: Project Pueblo

Some students from LSU are travelling to northeastern Arizona to help the Navajo people. There was a building ban placed on the land due to a dispute between the Navajo and Hopi tribes. This plunged the Navajo people into a poverty rarely seen in America. The students of LSU will be helping with needs assessments, weatherization projects, building digital infrastructure, and education. There is also a serious problem with uranium contamination in the water supply in this area due to mining during the Cold War. LSU students will be helping to install drinking water systems in homes of the Navajo people that will supply them with safe drinking water.

Kayenta, Navajo Land, Arizona
Originally uploaded by hanneorla

2. University of Michigan School of Information: Alternative Spring Break

This program is geared toward graduate students who will travel to Chicago, New York, or Washington D.C. to volunteer their time in a professional work environment in the public sector. Here is a list of organizations that these students give their time and commitment to during their spring break:
- "Think Tanks" and the War on Drugs
- AASL Essential Links: Resources for School Library Media Programs
- ABA Policy Project
- Anime Festival Intern at Teen Central
- Archival Processing
- Be a Librarian at the New York Public Library for a Week
- Build a Library!
- Correctional Services Internship
- Create a Factsheet on Gender Diversity
- Detroit Impact, Incorporated
- Green Map System
- Pro Bono Net
- The Library of Congress
- U.S. Naval Observatory
- Walter Reed Army Institute of Research

These are just a few of the projects where the grad students of UMich spend their spring break volunteering their time.

3. Harvard Law - Spring Break delegation to Beijing

Each year HALS (Harvard Asia Law Society) sends 15-20 students to an Asian country during spring break. This year Harvard Law students will be visiting Beijing, China. The purpose of the trip is to familiarize students with the legal, political, and economic climate of Beijing, China. The students are also immersed in the country's culture and customs. Last year's trip was to Seoul, South Korea. To obtain a spot to go on one of these trip, students are selected through a lottery system. Students can earn lottery points by helping to organize the Asia Business Conference and language tables.

my vision of beijing
Originally uploaded by hdemmon

4. University of Maryland - Haiti Earthquake Relief

A group of 20-25 students, some from the University of Maryland, are travelling to the disaster zone of Haiti for their spring break. They will be teaching the local Haitian people how to build houses from earthbags. Earthbag building is nothing new that utilizes bags filled of dirt to build shelters. The students will be helping locals to build a dirtbag structure on the College Park Campus. Even with the student's limited experience, just giving a helping hand to the locals will help expedite the process. The students have been working with local contacts to organize their trip.

5. University of Wisconsin - Civil Rights Pilgramage

This year students of the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire will be spending their spring break touring civil rights sights of historical importance. They will be visiting the birthplace of Martin Luther King in Atlanta, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, Ala.; the Civil Rights Memorial and the Rosa Parks Museum and Library in Montgomery, Ala.; the National Voting Rights Museum and other sites in Selma, Ala.; Central High School and the William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Ark.; and the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn.


Whatever your plans are for this spring break, may it be a happy and safe one!

Posted by the owner of MyBookCart.com, the premier online book and textbook buyback site.