U. Southern California center provides Spring Break alternatives

Belki Montejo
University Wire
02-05-1999
(Daily Trojan) (U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- When Spring Break comes, most students head for the beach, go home or simply relax for a week. Others take the opportunity of a lifetime - they go on Alternative Spring Break.

Sponsored by the USC Volunteer Center, the Alternative Spring Break program allows students to go to one of three places away from Los Angeles to do community service, learn about the environment or a different culture.

"(You have the chance to) get down, get dirty and get paint all over yourself," said Jessica Peraza, a sophomore majoring in biomedical engineering, about her experience on a Navajo reservation in Utah with the program last year. "It was a whole new adventure for me."

The Navajo Nation trip was the first in the program, which was started about eight years ago by Jerry Houser, who was then the director of the Career Center, said Robin Levine, a senior majoring in print journalism.

Then an environmentally focused trip to Death Valley was added, and a trip to Monterey was established to help the homeless.

To go on the trips, students must submit an application, which includes an essay so the student leaders can get to know the applicants better, Levine said. Once students are chosen, the cost of a trip is $75, which includes food, lodging and transportation.

"It's a pretty cheap price for everything you learn and do," said Chris Lamb, a senior majoring in civil engineering.

The deadline to turn in applications is 5 p.m. today. Interested students may pick up an application at the Volunteer Center, located in Student Union 202, or on the internet at http://www.usc. edu/dept/student-affairs/volunteer_center/ASBapplication.html.

Lamb coordinates the Navajo Nation trip in Utah, which takes about 25 students.

"You help out the Navajo community by painting their houses and doing light repairing," Lamb said.

The Death Valley trip will take about 20 students and is coordinated by Drew Homa, a junior majoring in English and history.

"The focus of the Death Valley trip is environmentalism," Homa said. "We do this in two ways - one, we try to do some environmental projects with the Death Valley rangers while we're at the park.

"The second thing we do is to try to live more environmentally when we're there and when we come back to L.A."

Levine coordinates the Monterey trip, which is a homelessness and spirituality awareness outing. Twenty students spend time with the homeless people who come to a shelter in the northern California town.

"The students hang out, talk, play games and prepare hot meals for the homeless," Levine said.

Homa said his involvement with the program has been one of the high points of his college career.

"All three trips are amazing enough that they change your life because they give you a different outlook on things that you might not have thought of before."

Blusean Velasco, a sophomore majoring in computer engineering, has applied for the Navajo Nation trip.

"I want to go because it is a good opportunity for me to take an adventurous trip and also help someone elseSto help out a whole community," Valesco said.



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