Alternative Spring Break
Planting Hope
Summer 2012 · Comment ·
Architecture major Chris Huskey’s spring break destination checklist was a far cry from the typical college student’s. As coordinator for UT Arlington’s 2012 Alternative Spring Break program, he sought locations where he and 23 others could spend their week-long vacation making the world a better place.
His research yielded three trips: one to Perryville, Ark., where six students worked on a farm that sends resources to impoverished Third World countries; one to Atlanta, where a group of nine spring breakers helped children at a battered women’s shelter while the kids’ mothers looked for jobs; and one to New Orleans, where another nine worked with Katrina’s Kids, an organization that aids New Orleans children after Hurricane Katrina. “It’s important to get out of your element and experience something different,” says Huskey, who made the Atlanta trip. “It’s one thing to have an education, but it’s another to understand others and where they’re coming from. It helps you appreciate what you do have and shows you what’s really important.”
