49 KU students volunteer over winter break

Forty-nine students will forfeit part of their winter vacation to lend a helping hand in this year’s edition of Alternative Winter Breaks, a student-run community service program.

Participating students are taking a class this fall to prepare for a week of service January 7-14. At seven sites in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi and Texas, students will address such issues as health care, domestic violence, environmental preservation, education and help for people with disabilities.

KU’s student-run Alternative Winter Breaks program offers students a unique opportunity to make volunteer efforts part of their university educational experience through service-learning trips. Once selected for the program, students attend the Special Projects in the Community course. If they complete all course requirements, they can earn up to two college credit hours. Alternative Winter Break can also count as one honors unit for the University Honors Program that now requires honors students to complete one or two units outside the classroom. The program costs participants $200 and covers their transportation, housing and meals.

KU’s Alternative Breaks program began in 1995 with a spring break trip to El Paso, Texas. It has expanded to include winter, spring and weekend break programs along with more sites and opportunities to volunteer. Alternative Breaks works in partnership with KU’s Center for Community Outreach, a student-run and student-funded organization that operates 12 volunteer programs and serves as a coordinating group for KU students and student groups interested in volunteer projects.

Kathleen Daughety, Topeka senior, and Jenna Sheldon-Sherman, Lawrence senior, are Alternative Breaks directors. Zach Carleton, Leawood senior, and Katey Gurwin, Wilmette, Ill., sophomore, are winter breaks site coordinators. Carleton and Gurwin selected this year’s sites, six of which are previous KU Alternative Breaks locations. New this year, KU students will make their first visit to The Nature Conservancy of Mississippi, Mississippi Gulf Coast site at Gautier, Miss.

Faculty advisers for Alternative Breaks are Linda Luckey, assistant to the senior vice provost, and Rueben Perez, assistant dean of students and director of the Student Involvement and Leadership Center. Perez teaches the Special Projects in the Community course, assisted by Hannah Abelbeck, program coordinator for KU’s Center for Service Learning.

KU student participants in the Alternative Winter Breaks program are listed online by name, hometown, major, level in school, parents (when available) and high school attended. View the listing online by clicking here.