Last week, 126 Penn students traveled to six different states to participate in Alternate Spring Break, an organization that sponsors community service trips to various parts of the country. Its participants performed activities that ranged from working at an animal shelter to building homes for low-income residents.
Although these students and the communities they served undoubtedly gained some value from these philanthropic initiatives, the efforts are not enough to make a sustainable impact.
The true value of ASB lies more in its encouragement of long-term civic engagement. Successful community service projects generally awaken a sense of personal responsibility and serve as gateways to more impactful efforts in the future. One of the missions of ASB, according to its website, is to act as “a service learning framework” for students. Ideally, they should be able to use this framework as the beginning of an extended commitment to addressing issues of public concern.
Therefore, we believe that the organizers of the trips should do more to follow up with participants. ASB should be more active in hosting subsequent programs to continue the dialogue after the trips end.
Have you participated in Alternate Spring Break? Send us a letter to the editor to tell us about what the experience taught you: letters@theDP.com.
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