Alternative Spring Break on display

The showcase will feature the students and staff who took part in this year’s Alternative Spring Break (ASB). The program offers opportunities to participate in a week-long service-learning experience. Participants may do development work abroad or work on community projects in Montreal.

 

“Participants from all three trips will be there to talk about their experiences,” says Laura Glover, Concordia student and this year's coordinator of the ASB program. “The objective of the showcase is to provide an opportunity for the students to share their experiences and to encourage others to participate in the future. 

 

“We have students from all different fields of study, different ages, different skill sets, and different interests. We think that every participant takes something unique away from the experience,” she said. “It’s really important for each participant to be able to speak to those experiences and to reach out to others.”

 

This year’s volunteers worked in Montreal, the Laurentians and New Orleans. Those who stayed closer to home worked with such organizations as Santropol Roulant and Habitat for Humanity, doing everything from helping with food delivery, planning parties for children, and performing maintenance work. 

 

“What I think is so special about the Montreal trip is that it offers the opportunity for students to remain involved with the organizations that they worked with over spring break, in the long term,” Glover says.

 

Participants who went to New Orleans worked with the St. Bernard Project, helping to rebuild homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. “Our students walked away with a much better understanding of construction work, while having made a positive contribution to the New Orleans community at the same time,” says Glover, who was a team leader for the New Orleans volunteer trip.

 

“The St. Bernard Project is very focused on the values of service-learning. Our participants volunteered their time and labour over the course of the week and the St. Bernard Project taught them a number of new skills in return.”  

 

Glover encourages all members of the Concordia community - not just students - to attend this week’s showcase.

 

“Those who could potentially participate in the program in the future would really benefit from learning about it at the showcase this week,” she says. “There are opportunities for university staff members — so part-time faculty, full-time faculty, administrators — to participate in the trips as well. It’s not just a program that exists to benefit students. It’s also an experiential learning opportunity for all members of the university community.”

 

When:   Friday, March 22, 2013, from 3:30 to 5 p.m.

Where:   Room EV-2.260, Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Integrated Complex (1515 Ste-Catherine St. W.), Sir George Williams Campus 

 

•   Alternative Spring Break

•   St. Bernard Project

•   Santropol Roulant

•   Habitat for Humanity ReStore

•   Latino Farmers Cooperative