| Making a Difference
Students Spend Spring Break Helping Others
April 16, 2007
Every year, scores of UCSD students fan out across
the globe for spring break. Some spend their time
at the beach or on the slopes. But quite a few choose
to dedicate their one-week vacation to community service.
The trips, known as alternative spring breaks, can
take students as far as China, Russia and Peru. Some
work in orphanages. Others volunteer in schools and
hospitals. This year, This Week@UCSD has asked a student
and an alumna, who went on alternative spring break
trips, to write a first-person essay about their experiences.
Charlene Chang wrote about working with orphans in Guatemala and trekking the country’s jungles and volcanoes. Chapin Cole talked about teaching English and environmental-friendly practices in a Chinese elementary school.
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Advising an Amazing Alternative Break: China
by Chapin Cole, UCSD Alum 2006, Community Advisor of Alternative Break: China
 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. More
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Alternative Break in Guatemala
by Charlene Chang, Co-site Leader
Horseback riding on a volcano, hiking in a forest sheltering the Mayan ruins of Tikal and the ecstatic screams and laughter of girls in Guatemala City were only a few of the many memories of my amazing “alternative” spring break as an international volunteer.
 This
year, as a leader of the Alternative Spring
Break Guatemala group of 10 UCSD students,
I embarked on a weeklong volunteer trip
and I learned that education is an important
part of service. Our group was assigned
to renovate and paint a home and playground
for girls ages 5 to 16, who are orphans
from rural areas or whose families live
in extreme poverty. More
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