An altruistic option to a standard break

STA travel, a student travel organization on 37th and Chestnut streets, has booked about two hundred groups to well-known party destinations. "The most popular spots for Penn students who have booked through us have been and still are Cancun and Jamaica," said Ian Prauss, a STA travel agent. Exotic locales provide both relaxation and rowdy fun, plus new people and new experiences. For many, spring break has become almost synonymous with tan lines and tropical drinks. "I'm not a noble kid. I want to go where there will be sex, shots and sand," said Ethan Kay, a Wharton sophomore traveling to South Padre Island. But while the majority will travel to Mexico and Europe to let loose, others will embark on a completely different experience -- service-oriented spring breaks, which are growing in popularity nationwide. Next week, Alternate Spring Break, a student run organization based in Civic House, will send 100 Penn students to destinations around the country. Located as close as Virginia and as distant as New Mexico, the ASB projects range from Habitat for Humanity programs, where students construct houses, to community volunteer outings, which match students with local residents. "I wanted to do something that would be fun but wouldn't just be helping me have fun," said College sophomore Julia Blank, who will head to Columbus, Ga. A local Habitat project is sending 14 students to Columbus on a housing blitz -- a program aimed at quickly constructing new homes. The group will build six new houses in one week. The ASB trips are moderately priced from $145 to $300. And students don't mind opening their wallets for the cause. "I consider the money spent on the trip as going toward charity in a sense," said College senior Shana Sethi, who is also journeying down south for the housing blitz. Students say ASB's allure is simple -- kids are looking for an alternative to the traditional drunken debauchery of spring break. "The people we attract are kids looking for something cheap and fun to do for Spring Break," said Meredith Chiaccio, co-chairwoman of ASB. "A lot of people get sick of spending spring break in a drunken haze." Aside from the opportunity to give back, ASB allows students some unique bonding time. "You are living and working together," said Chiaccio, a College junior. "You watch people have to struggle with all of these real life issues and from that you get to know them really well. You literally return to Penn with fourteen new friends." Many students have been so thrilled with past ASB excursions that they've signed up again. Jen Bolson, a College sophomore who stumbled upon ASB by accident, will return for a second break -- this time as a site leader. "I knew I wasn't going home so I figured I would go to Cancun or something, then I saw the ad for ASB. I really had no idea what I was getting into," Bolson said. "Its just really great to be with such diverse people from Penn and go away and bond. A lot of my closest friends now are people I met there last spring break." And some altruistic students leave the country for their own causes. Separate from ASB, other nationally run programs send students to foreign locales like El Salvador and the Dominican Republic. There, students get an added bonus -- trying out newly acquired foreign languages. Trina Dasgupta, a Wharton junior, looks forward to spending her break in a Dominican Republic orphanage. Dasgupta will travel with two Penn friends on a program called Orphanage Outreach, which sends students all over Latin America to work with underprivileged children. "We all did a party thing last year and this year I wanted to do something different," Dasgupta said. "I wanted to work with kids, practice my Spanish and do something worthwhile."