Most Spartan’s take advantage of spring break to jet off with friends to places like Fort Lauderdale, Cancun or another beach destination. Others check off number 39 on their Spartan Bucket List and go on an Alternative Spartan Break.
Alternative Spartan Breaks (ASB) is a registered student organization offering service trip opportunities for Michigan State University students. They offer spring break trips and weekend experiences throughout both the fall and spring semesters.
For most students, spring break and the weekends are a sacred time to relax free of work. Physiology junior and ASB outreach chair Cordelia Kraus loves having that break from her schedule, but volunteering and ASB is no intrusion to her time. Rather, it’s something she makes time for.
"It’s not just wasting my weekend volunteering when I could be making more money, or getting better grades or going out and partying," Kraus said. "I feel very passionate about these issues, so I feel like I just make the time."
ASB follows the United Nation’s 17 sustainable development goals. One or more of these influence the goal of the specific experience the group goes on. Nutritional sciences senior and ASB president of external communications Gabriella Alberganti thinks this process makes the experience much more unique and immersive for students.
By allowing students to go into a community with a specific goal and task oriented toward what the community needs, they are able to make a real impact on the people there. Even more unique, students don’t know where they are going prior to the trip.
"These trips aren’t based on travel. They’re based on community and volunteering and improving those communities where they need it," Alberganti said. "If we were to just give the locations right away… people might be more inclined to go to a location they find more admirable rather than go to a location that has a social issue that resonates with them."
ASB has been oriented toward communities in need since 1991, making 34 years of building and maintain authentic relationships with their community partners. Community partners are the organizations within communities that ASB partners with to help make a difference. ASB often revisits some of the same communities. This benefits both the community and the students who give their time to help.
Biochemistry and molecular biology senior and ASB vice president of finance Andrew Quinn just went on his last ASB experience of his MSU career. Quinn went on his first ASB during the spring break of his junior year. He ended up with his final experience being at the same organization this past spring break.
"The reason why I came back (is) I was really passionate about this organization," Quinn said. "It’s kinda nice and like a storybook that I started and ended at the same organization."
These experiences took place at a childhood development center. Quinn was able to volunteer with kids a lot through ASB, knowing that his small acts of service can bring a smile to their faces. While many people may associate volunteering with more intensive labor, Quinn will forever remember the kids he interacted with and the little things he was able to do to help them.
"You don’t know what’s happening in their home lives but, you know what you’re doing right then and there," Quinn said. "They’ll probably take it back to their families being like 'I had such a great day.'"
Those little interactions like coming and hanging out with people, helping provide food and other supplies or just a hug when it’s needed can all be a big help to an individual in any of these communities. Their experience can also be rewarding to those who give themselves to be of service in these communities. Kraus recalled a trip she took with ASB to a high school in Costa Rica. This portion of the trip provided her with a cultural experience she will carry with her.
"They spoke a little English to us then we spoke a little Spanish to them," Kraus said. "Then they led us through a couple things in their culture like, they danced with us, and they showed us how to dance salsa."
Though not exactly volunteer focused, Kraus experienced the impact of learning about another culture and being able to show a little of her own, an experience which she credits to going on these ASB trips.
Alberganti hopes that students give ASB a chance, as it's a chance to gain experience and to better a community in need. If you can't commit to a full weekend or spring break experience, ASB hosts other events as well. For example, they did an event making blankets for a Lansing pet rescue.
"It’s important that we recruit MSU students passionate about these social issues," Alberganti said. "So that they can leave the experience feeling like they left a really big impact on the community and feeling like they grew themselves while on that experience and hoping they can take that experience into their lives after the fact."
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