For some students, a spring break spent relaxing at the beach is not enough. Students who participate in Alternative Spring Break trips travel in groups to places such as Guatemala and the Dominican Republic to do service projects.

Some students will work in construction, according to Leslie Beddingfield, program coordinator at the Center for Student Leadership, Ethics and Public Service. Others will assist dentists and doctors, she said.

“They go and they help, and they take and send medical supplies down there — supplies that these places just can’t get,” she said.

Other students, like Anna Patton, a senior in psychology, will be teaching.

“I’m going to Monte Cristi, in the Dominican Republic,” Patton, one of the team’s leaders, said. “We will be living at an orphanage, and going out to teach English in the community.”

This is Patton’s third trip. She said she experienced a bit of culture shock the first time she traveled to the Dominican Republic.

“There were just a lot of things I wasn’t used to where we were,” she said. “We stayed at the orphanage, and they were very strict in terms of dress code. Women have to have their knees and shoulders covered all the time. School is a very different experience there than it is here. Sometimes you have a class of five, and sometimes you have a class of 20, and it just depends on who feels like coming to school today.”

But Patton said the trips are wonderful experiences for her.

“I keep going back because the people that we serve are so welcoming, and so inviting, and when you’re down there you really just feel like a part of a family,” she said.

Patton said the people at the orphanage still remember her.

“It’s really touching,” she said

That’s why Beddingfield said the trips are such positive experiences. She said the trips teach students about service and allow them to experience first-hand how others live in third-world countries.

“They’re going down there to help these people develop a better life, to show them how or to help them set up different programs [that] help them,” she said.

Alternative Spring Break trips have gained popularity, according to Beddingfield. She said students are still calling to see if they can be fit into one of the trips.

Selby Lo, a senior in biological sciences, is going on an Alternative Spring Break trip for the first time. He is going to the Dominican Republic to work with Habitat for Humanity.

“We’re going to be building houses down there,” he said. “Not typical American houses, because they get so many hurricanes every year, so we build cement houses.”

Lo said he has wanted to do an Alternative Spring Break trip since his freshman year, but never got the chance.

“I was very big on volunteering in middle school and high school, but there haven’t been a lot of opportunities here, so just being able to volunteer will be good,” he said.

Although Lo said he’s expecting a little culture shock, he’s mostly excited about going.

And for those like Lo who have had past interest in joining a trip, Patton said she hopes that even more people will be going next year.

“If anyone is interested in attending a spring break trip, I’d refer them to the CSLEPS Web site, and I’d encourage them to begin researching, and to consider going on a trip next year,” she said.