Volunteering means different things to different people, but for Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences senior Alex Ko, the first adjective an alternative spring break brings to mind is more along the lines of ‘hip,’ he said.
‘It seemed to me that going on one of these trips was a trendy thing to do,’ Ko, Boston University’s Undergraduate Public Health Association secretary, said. ‘It didn’t seem the intent of the trip was what it should be.’
Ko and other UPHA officers hosted an open debate on the ethics behind volunteer service trips, where they discussed student motivation behind service trips, as well the sustainability of short trips and their effectiveness on a community. About 60 attended Wednesday night in a SAR lecture hall.
Kate Mitchell, a second year SPH graduate student, said she thinks privileged college students have more to offer from their short-term experience than just a newly repaved road.
‘Students who can afford to go on these trips are going to be doctors, lawyers, senators,’ she said. ‘They’ll be decision-makers in the future. What they learn from their experience will put these impoverished people on the agenda.’
School of Hospitality Administration junior Tara Lee Vaughn, who has been doing HIV/AIDS service work since her experience in the First-Year Student Outreach Project, said sometimes there are better alternatives to going abroad.
‘Expenses spent on sending people [abroad] could be better spent hiring people in those countries,’ she said. ‘How much you spend for a week could hire someone for a year.’
Many students said volunteers should instead donate the high fees they pay to go on these trips, or do local work in Boston, which would save airfare and reduce their carbon footprint while doing just as much good.
However, College of Arts and Sciences senior Kate McIlhemny said there is still a lot to learn from experiencing the way of life in developing nations.
‘It gives you more of a chance to get to know the community when you’re working alongside them,’ she said.
Student-led development programs, such as Global Medical Brigades, pride themselves on giving students that chance while making a difference abroad, student representative Kyle Thibodeau said. The BU group organizes medical outreach trips to Honduras in which students work alongside doctors. This January, the group took its second trip to Honduras, bringing in over $1 million in medical supplies with them.
Although there was much debate about the possible adverse effects of these projects, students said they agreed service trips should still be considered positive.
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ASB is so hip. Already thousands of college students have canceled their spring break trips to Cancun, Cabo, Acapulco, etc. and are planning to flock to the GSU on Sunday night to sleep on the floor and then do a week’s worth of community service. Pretty freaking glamourous.