Published: Monday, November 28, 2011
Helen Fallon, director of the Honors Program, spent last year's spring break with a group of college students in New York City, helping to scrub and clean the Ronald McDonald House of New York for pediatric cancer patients and their families.
Director of Student Activities JW Tabacchi took a group of students to Miami, where they spent the week hammering nails, painting walls and roofing, all to build homes for those in need of shelter.
While spring break for college students stereotypically means vacations to the beach with time off from school and jobs, Popint Park University students planning to attend one of the two alternative spring break trips will have no lack of work. Instead, they will be dedicating their time off from school to performing good deeds.
"You learn how fortunate we are to have what we have and that there are so many people who don't have things," Fallon said.
The alternative spring break trips, sponsored by the Honors Program and Office of Student Activites, aim to give back to the community and help those less fortunate, all while providing a beneficial experience to those involved.
Fallon plans to take a group of approximately 15 students to New York City again. It is the third year that the group will travel to the big city, but the activities have not yet been decided.
"Each year, we find two to three locations to volunteer our time to help out different charities and groups," Fallon said.
In previous years, students on this trip have helped clean up park areas and spent time at the Ronald McDonald House among other community service projects.
They are also given free time and other opportunities, such as visiting Ellis Island and touring CBS, which have both been done in past trips. This year, Fallon hopes to visit the 9/11 memorial.
The application for the Honors Program alternative spring break is available through OrgSync until Dec. 18 at 8 p.m. Honors Program students and those students housed in the Living and Learning Communities are eligible for the trip. It will take place from March 5 to March 8, and Fallon hopes to find the right people to attend.
"We look for people who have interest in community service, who don't mind rolling up their sleeves and also those who want to go to probably one of the greatest ciies on Earth," Fallon said.
Prices and volunteer projects are still in the works, but applications are being accepted.
Alongside this volunteer opportunity is the alternative spring break offered by the Office of Students Activities and Commuter Affairs. Led by Tabacchi and Sarah George, director of Commuter Affairs, students will travel to Seattle to volunteer their time from March 4 until March 10.
Tabacchi explains that they plan to take 12 students on the trip and are hoping for a varied group of individuals to apply.
"I would really like a diverse group of students," Tabacchi said. "I'd like each academic school to be represented in a variety of majors so it's just not a clump. That benefits not only the group itself because they get to interact with different majors, but then each school can be impacted within the university."
The trip in recent years has focused on the Gulf Coast region, but the students selected for the trip this year will head to the West coast to work on a Habitat for Humanity project.
This is also the first time for George to be a part of the alternative spring break trip. She had observed trips during past years and decided to get involved in the planning this year. George hopes that she will be able to promote the opportunity to commuters throughout the campus.
"I really want [to] try to get commuters more involved with extracurricular activities outside of the classroom and I thought this would be a good way," George said.
George believes that although the trip will involve hard work and tough labor, it will be an experience well worth the struggle.
"You're going to be tired and you're going to be sore because you're going to be doing manual labor for a week, but I also think at the end of the week you will have built a house and you'll have tangible evidence of how you've impacted someone else's life," George said. "I think that's a type of community service that not a lot of people get to experience."
The application for this trip is available online through OrgSync. Students eligible for the trip are full-time undergraduate students. The application deadline is Dec. 5 at 4 p.m. and the cost of the trip is $400.
Both trips offer students an alternative to the typical spring break vacation. Those leading the trips encourage students to apply and take advantage to the opportunities being presented to them from Point Park.
"One of the core values that we believe here at Point Park is having a community-minded student so that they are thinking about how to help," Tabacchi said. "We hope that these trips will just reinforce people's passion to give back and to also create some new opportunities for them so that they can continue this once they graduate from college."
The application for the Honors Program alternative spring break trip can be found at:https://orgsync.com/22788/forms/show/39459
The application for the Campus Life alternative spring break trip can be found at:https://orgsync.com/22788/forms/show/30074
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