UK Alternative Service Breaks Leave Lasting Impressions on Students

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 6, 2016) — University of Kentucky students did more than just flock to Florida for their spring break trips this year. For the past eight years, UK Alternative Service Breaks (ASB) has provided opportunities for students to make their breaks meaningful and extremely impactful.

UK ASB offers a variety of service immersions to UK students during spring, winter and summer breaks. The organization, housed in the Center for Community Outreach, strives to provide quality and fulfilling alternative breaks that mutually benefit community partners and student participants through the education of social issues, service work and student facilitated reflection.

During this past spring break, which took place the week of March 12 - 19, ASB hosted a variety of service excursions aiming to help spawn their organizational vision — a campus of socially aware student citizens seeking to make a positive impact in the global community.  ASB hosted programs in Nicaragua; the Dominican Republic; New Orleans; Silver Springs, Florida; Atlanta; David, Kentucky; Washington, D.C.; and California.

A total of 119 student participants were involved in service immersions, along with 30 site leaders and 28 faculty and staff site advisors that covered a range of 20 different sites across the state, country and the world. Over the 2015-16 school year, there will be a total of 8 spring break trips, two spring weekend trips, one summer trip, two fall weekend trips and two winter break trips. Of these trips, five are international trips and 10 are domestic.

For most participants, hard work and service quickly transformed into the realization that spending their free time outside of Lexington, in service, was the most fulfilling way to spend their breaks. Student Matthew Hunter was one of these participants impacted by a 2016 ASB spring break trip when he chose to travel and serve in Washington, D.C.

“I was a little skeptical before going on the Washington, D.C. trip because my initial thoughts about people affected by homelessness was that they were lazy, substance abusers or uneducated," Hunter said. "Before the trip I was prejudiced against people affected by homelessness."

However, after the trip Hunter’s views and outlook was changed because of his service to others.

“I learned that my presumptive thoughts were often wrong," Hunter said. "I realized that some of them just suffered from bad luck. They either lost their job or the housing market became too expensive. A handful of the people I met were college graduates. They did what they were supposed to do yet ran into some bad luck. I shouldn’t assume things before I meet people.”

Like Hunter, other student participants also confessed that their ASB service immersion pushed them out of their comfort zones. Megan Zugger, an incoming 2016-17 program director, had a daunting feeling prior to traveling to the Dominican Republic since she had never left the country.

"Last semester, a friend encouraged me to sign up for a spring break trip with Alternative Service Breaks and on a whim I decided to go," Zugger said. "At the time, I did not know much about ASB, but it sounded interesting and I was excited. I had always been involved in community service but never on the scale that my ASB trip would provide."

Zugger now claims that ASB educated her on how to be an active citizen. She learned about voluntourism, active citizenship and the Dominican culture.

"My time spent in the Dominican Republic was unlike anything I had ever experienced," Zugger said. "I was able to become a part of a new community that I served while simultaneously experiencing its rich and unique culture. The impact the trip had on my life, combined with the education provided by ASB has helped me develop as a more involved citizen and connect me to others who share my same passions."

Students across the university are learning and gaining new insight of what it truly means to be citizens who are making a positive impact on the global community. For some, one service immersion isn't enough!

"I have been on six ASB trips (and counting!) in my past three years at UK and each one has been equally impactful and life changing to me," said Cari Caudill, 2015-16 ASB director.

Caudill claims that each service immersion not only taught her about the importance of serving others, but she also found a little bit of herself as she selflessly gave to a community.

"In Nicaragua, I found my passion for service work and changed my major," Caudill said. "In Scottsville, Kentucky, I found my voice in student leadership. In Ecuador, I found my strength in connecting with people. In West Virginia, I found my openness in learning about completely unfamiliar social issues. In California, I found that I still have so much to explore. In all of these places, I found never-ending laughter, great attitudes, hard work, humbling moments and unique bonds with the community and with my trip group. Each trip I have taken with UK ASB has brought me closer to finding myself."

ASB service immersions encourage students to reach beyond the boarders of Lexington. Each student returns after their week of selflessly giving of themselves with a fresh, new perspective of community service and a personal sense of growth. 

"You come home with new perspectives on everything in life, and you will always carry with you those small, but important, moments of enlightenment," Caudill said.

Experiencing a culture through service-learning and immersion creates a spring, winter or summer break unlike anything else.

"UK ASB has been the most rewarding thing for me on a personal, professional and community level. I wouldn't trade my experiences these last three years for the world," reflected Caudill.

UK ASB is a program housed in the UK Center for Community Outreach (CCO). The CCO seeks to serve, connect and unite the University of Kentucky with the surrounding community in collaborative efforts to promote life-long community service. For more information about the CCO, visit www.ukcco.org. Connect with the CCO on Facebook here and on Twitter at http;//twitter.com/ukcco.

UK is the University for Kentucky. At UK, we are educating more students, treating more patients with complex illnesses and conducting more research and service than at any time in our 150-year history. To read more about the UK story and how you can support continued investment in your university and the Commonwealth, go to: uky.edu/uk4ky. #uk4ky #seeblue

MEDIA CONTACT: Katy Bennett or Rebecca Stratton, katy.bennett@uky.edu or rebecca.stratton@uky.edu, 859-257-1909/859-323-2395