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Advising an Amazing Alternative Break: China
Chapin Cole, UCSD Alum 2006, Community Advisor of Alternative Break: China
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| Cole with some of the students her group taught. |
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You might think that the advisor of an alternative spring break trip would know all the answers. I was one of the students who co-lead three of these trips. Now, during the last week of March, I was acting as an alum community advisor for a trip to the Chinese city of Xi’an, located at the eastern end of the Silk Road. So you could argue that I should have known every twist and turn that the trip would bring. But year after year of participating in alternative breaks has proven to me that anything is possible and nothing can be predicted. My trip this year was no exception.
In Xi’an, our group volunteered in two second-grade classrooms. We taught English and more specifically, environmental protection. The classrooms were each filled with about 70 students, with desks and benches pushed side by side. Teaching was a big challenge—the children, while adorable, were very excited to see us and couldn’t keep quiet for more than a few minutes at a time!
At the end of the week, however, the two classes came together and performed skits and songs about recycling that we had taught them. My group of students was “grass” that feeds the bunny, dies when someone litters and comes to life again when someone recycles. My proudest moment was leading the children during the skit, and watching them scream, “I am grass! I am green and healthy!”
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| Students in Cole's group pose in front of the Terracotta Warriors. |
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Apart from volunteering, we had the good fortune of taking part in a wide variety of cultural activities that Cross-Cultural Solutions (the nonprofit organization that we go through) puts on. These activities included things like a shadow puppet show, a tea ceremony, bicycling on the city wall, lectures on Chinese calligraphy and medicine and visiting the Terracotta Warriors, a collection of thousands of terra cotta warriors and horses buried in an emperor’s tomb. One of my favorite activities was visiting what’s called the “English Corner,” a meeting spot where every Thursday night anyone can come practice their English. When we arrived, we were swarmed by about 20 people each, just trying to get a chance to talk to us. It was so amazing to be so respected just because of where we were from and the fact that we speak English.
As the trip’s advisor, I didn’t participate in activities as much as I acted as a facilitator for the group. My job was to show the student site leaders some of the steps along the way to leading a group and then simply let them create their own experience. On the outside, it may look as though the advisor is the one at the top and the students are the followers. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. Each participant had a hand in participating, leading, reflecting and learning their role in the global society. I was just lucky enough to be along for the ride. |
