College of Arts and Sciences freshman Harleen Grewal is heading to Puerto Rico for spring break, but it’s not all about relaxing under palm trees and munching plantains.
Grewal is headed to the Caribbean to work with Iniciativa Comunitaria, an umbrella organization under which she’ll be educating San Juan families about HIV/AIDS, because instead of going on vacation, she’s going on Alternative Spring Break.
“Puerto Rico is one of the places in America that suffers the most from AIDS, and I think students should care about things like that,” she said.
As most BU students head home or to the vacation destination of their choice, about 300 will participate in ASB, which is run by the Community Service Center.
The trips allow undergraduates to serve communities all over the United States and are divided into nine focuses, including affordable housing and animal rescue, according to the ASB website.
“It’s a cool way for students to expand, try something new, meet a diverse group of students and visit a different part of the country, all while taking part in community service,'” said Program Manager Zhandra Ferreira-Cesar, a CAS senior.
Julia Nagy, a freshman in CAS headed to Florida, said she is glad to get moving during the break.
“It’s definitely going to be more fun than sitting on my butt for a week at home,” Nagy said. “It’s a great jumping-off point for students getting involved in their hometowns.”
Founded in 1988, ASB grew from a single delegation of students traveling to Boone, N.C. to work with human service organizations to a thriving program running 35 trips for 317 participants, who will travel by buses, trains, vans and planes to 24 different states and Puerto Rico, Ferreira-Cesar said.
Until this year, students would usually have line up in the George Sherman Union a full 24 hours before sign-ups took place to secure a spot. Although some students saw it as an opportunity to bond show their dedication to the trip, for many it seemed excessive.
This year, the sign-ups took place entirely online, but were still first come, first served, Cesar said. All trip spots were filled and paid for in four minutes, a tiny fraction of the time it usually takes.
“It’s a lot to ask of people to dedicate 24 hours to signing up because you don’t get sleep, and often students can’t participate because they had an exam at that time,” she said. “We didn’t think that was fair.”
She also said she didn’t like turning away students who didn’t know about the long wait and showed up too late to get a spot.
“We want to give equal opportunity to participate to all of our first-years and students who didn’t previously know about ASB,” explained Cesar. “Moving the sign-up process online made that a lot easier.”
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