So what did you do during Spring Break?

 

 

 

12 CSE students group together for a photo during CSE Alternative Spring Break.

 

For some it was heading down to Cancun for some fun in the sun; for others, it was catching up on some needed rest; but for 12 Women’s College students at the College of Saint Elizabeth (CSE), 2 Convent Road, Morristown, NJ, it was putting on their tool belts and helping families rebuild their lives, during CSE Alternative Spring Break trip to Gallup, NM from March 4 – 9, 2007.

 

 

 

CSE Women’s College student Vincezina Morano, ‘08, helps build a modular home for displaced residents living in the Southwestern Indian Reservation in Gallup, NM.

 

Sponsored by CSE Center for Volunteerism and Service Learning and Campus Ministry, students worked with the Southwest Indian Foundation in building homes for families in the Navajo Reservation. In addition, students visited high school students at St. Michael’s Indian High School; and learned about the history, culture and issues facing Native Americans today through guest speakers, visits to cultural and historical sites, and much more.

 

 

 

CSE students participate in a sacred labyrinth walk in Arizona during CSE Alternative Spring Break trip.

 

Paula Fernandes, CSE director of the Center for Volunteerism and Service Learning, has been looking to get into this program for the past year. She says that service trips, like these, “help students get involved in communities that they haven’t been exposed to.”

 

For Women’s College student, Kate Rennles, ’08, of Brookline, NJ, the service trip was an amazing experience.  “If you can do something to help alleviate pain, why not step up and get rid of it?”

 

Alternative spring breaks, like CSE’s, have become popular in recent years; according to Campus Compact, a coalition of 1,000 colleges and universities committed to the civic mission of higher education, the number of schools offering spring break volunteer opportunities has increased from 66 percent to 77 percent since 2000.

 

Click here to watch WMBC-TV’s video.