As hundreds of Boston University students lined up early as 3 a.m. outside the Sargent Activities Center last month for the chance to land a coveted spot on an Alternative Spring Breaks trip, some students at BU and other schools were signing up for religious community service trips throughout the country.
Similar to other ASB trips, groups participate in community service activities all week, but religious trips incorporate elements of faith into their programs.
Trips sponsored by the BU Florence ‘ Chafetz Hillel House have been filled since their inception two years ago, said Associate Program Director of Student Activities Seth Kroll. This year, Hillel’s trip went to New Orleans to help with Hurricane Katrina recovery, which drew a lot of interest from students.
“Years after [Katrina], there are still things that need to be done, which is why [many] students are going on ASB in general,” Kroll said. “As Jews, we’re commanded to do good service.”
At New York University, the Bronfman Center for Jewish Students initiated its first combined Jewish-Muslim Spring Break trip to New Orleans this year in an effort to maintain a working relationship between the religions, said the center’s executive director Cindy Greenberg.
“We could think of no better way to continue to build bridges than to engage in service together,” she said in an email.
Trip members, consisting of 15 Jews and 15 Muslims, met weekly during the semester to plan the trip and bond with each other, Greenberg said. Although the trip was focused on providing community service, a lot of time was dedicated to learning about each others’ religions.
Religious groups, in addition to dealing with the normal hassles of traveling, had to arrange their trips to accommodate their religious beliefs, as well.
In observance of religious law, the Hillel group flew to New Orleans on Sunday to avoid traveling on the Sabbath — between sunset on Friday and Saturday, in Judaism – and the trip had to include opportunities for religious services and kosher food, according to College of Engineering freshman Jill Wolfson, who went on the trip this year.
“As an observant Jew, I wanted to be able to observe Shabbat and look at the community service trip more from a Jewish perspective,” she said.
At some colleges, faith-based volunteer groups have struggled to stir up student interest in religious trips.
Mike Giancola, the director of the Center for Student Leadership, Ethics, and Public Service at North Carolina State University, said the interfaith ASB trip it developed two years ago — in part to address religious misunderstandings it perceived between students of different faiths following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 — is the only Spring Break trip the center had trouble filling this year.
Giancola attributed the trip’s low numbers to the lure of warmer weather and chance to take international trips as well as some students’ concerns that others on the interfaith trip would try to convert them to another religion.
Students on the trip to Philadelphia work together on a service project, but also visit mosques, synagogues and several other churches to better understand religions of other students on the trip, Giancola said.
“While the numbers continue to be small, I think it’s a niche area we need to spend more time on,” he said.