Miami University students spend spring break in Metairie, La. reconstructing homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Instead of sunbathing on a coastal beach, some Miami University students spent spring break traveling the country-and the world-in search of job opportunities, new solutions to Mexico's labor issues and projects to rebuild the Gulf Coast areas still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.
Although the alternative spring break trip is not a new idea for members of Students for Peace and Justice, by creating a blog, the group utilized new technologies to make its trip to Chiapas, Mexico more visible to the Miami community.
After approaching Paul Anderson, director of the Howe Writing Center, the group worked with the center to publish a blog highlighting the group's preparation for and progress of the trip, as well as follow-up reactions after returning to the United States.
Anderson said that although he didn't think of a blog before, it provided a great collaboration between students and the center to show how writing can be beneficial outside of the academic experience.
"One of our goals is to see that students and faculty fully appreciate great the great contributions writing makes to learning," Anderson said.
As part of the agreement, the center helped the group by providing some financial support for the trip.
Another group blazed the trail by planning an alternative spring break trip to D.C. for students from College Democrats, College Republicans and Associate Student Government to network with Miami alumni.
The trip, which was a collaboration of the Office of Institutional Relations, Career Services and students leaders, grew from a brainstormed mixture of Miami's Inside Washington program and trips other groups take to D.C., such as the College Republicans trip to the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Lisa Dankovich, associate director of institutional relations, said the trip fed directly into the office's goals.
"What we want to make sure is that Miami students have a pipeline to get out to Washington, D.C. ," Dankovich said.
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Students got to see the sites of the city while meeting with people such as a speechwriter for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Mia DeNardi, Miami sophomore and a member of College Democrats, said the trip was a great introduction to the way D.C. functions.
"There's really a strong Miami network in D.C.-it's hidden-but its strong," DeNardi said.
She said she came away from the experience knowing more about how to land an internship or a job.
Junior Jonathan McNabb said the trip provided opportunities for younger students to learn about all that D.C. has to offer, including Miami's Inside Washington program. He also said that for older students, the trip provided an opportunity to search for internships, jobs or follow-up on law school applications with visits to campuses.
While some students discussed political issues during spring break, others were elbow-deep in the rubble of old homes three years after Hurricane Katrina.
Multiple student groups trekked to the Gulf Coast to participate in rebuilding projects in the aftermath of multiple hurricanes that ravaged the region in the past few years. Comprising one of those groups was approximately 150 students who went with Campus Crusade.
Vince Gomez, Miami sophomore, said that despite not being an official member of the organization, he went on the trip in large part because of his faith.
Gomez, who went on the trip last year, said that although there is some progress in rebuilding the city, there is still a lot of work to do.
"Sixty percent of the city that had been damaged by the hurricane remained untouched by the spring of 2007," Gomez said. "(Now,) the city looks better than last year-even the downtown area. A ton of the storefronts (that) were boarded up before (aren't)."
He added, "The ninth ward remains in large part un-repaired."
Gomez said his group's project for part of the time he was there was to plant saplings in a park. The effort was part of a plan to replace the nearly 80 percent of trees destroyed in the hurricane and protect the area's ecosystem.
Despite the variety of spring break trips, the groups returned to campus with new connections, new experiences and, in some cases, new friendships forged in less than a week.
"College spring break-a lot of kids party it up-and it says a lot about the kids that went down there for a noble cause," Gomez said. "So many rich relationships were fostered by such a good cause."
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