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Next week, instead of catching up on sleep and suntans, UT students will build oyster shell reefs, advocate for food stability and learn leadership at Walt Disney World Alternative Spring Break.

• Eleven UT volunteers are driving to Biloxi, MS, to work on the damage from Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 Gulf oil spill in an environmentally focused break. They will remove invasive plant species from nature preserves, build oyster shell reefs, plant trees and new plants, clean up trash and other debris from hurricane damage, and build and maintain hiking trails. 
• Twelve UT volunteers will be heading north to Baltimore for a week of service and social justice education regarding food insecurity and sustainable agriculture in urban settings. The team will work with the Baltimore Farm Alliance and six different local farms to learn about how their work provides local residents with healthy and affordable food options. The group will then travel to Washington, D.C., to meet with representatives from government agencies working with food legislation.
• Twenty UT students will participate in the inaugural Walt Disney World Alternative Spring Break program March 9–12. The students will learn from Walt Disney World administration through two different seminars — Leadership Strategies and Techniques of Teamwork. The students are then required to apply these seminar lessons and produce a video that highlights the role human connection plays in the success of the Walt Disney World Corporation.

Ian McGinnity, director of community engagement in UT’s Office of Student Leadership and Engagement, said the alternative breaks are significant because students travel to a new environment after learning about that community’s challenges and the social issue they will be impacting.

“Students develop a plethora of skills from an alternative break trip including the ability to work with a diverse group (their peers, site partners, other participants), communicate effectively, live simply, apply concepts from their coursework and serve as leaders,” McGinnity said.

UT’s Alternative Breaks program has become so popular that UT’s student volunteer organization that coordinates the program, PEACE (People Exploring Active Community Experiences), offers numerous domestic and international trips throughout the year. These trips focus on such topics as hunger and homelessness, persons with disabilities, children, hurricane relief, animal rights, environmental preservation and education.

UT’s first alternative break trip was held during spring break in 1999. Its first international trip, to the Dominican Republic, was held in 2007.

For more information on PEACE’s Alternative Breaks program, contact McGinnity at (813) 257-3363 or imcginnity@ut.edu.