Alternative School Break (ASB) are student-run week long service engagement trips designed to challenge students and combat civic issues underlying larger societal concerns-- such as homelessness, health care, animal welfare and the environment. A successfully trip effectively teaches students the power of service and leaves them with a sense of camaraderie, compassion, and empathy for the people of the world, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic status.
Alternative School Breaks at UMBC consists of three tiers of service learning. We encourage the higher learning of the student via their maturity, critical thinking, and perceptions of society. ASB can be broken down into education, volunteering, and community. These components all come together with the vision and guidance of our Student Trip Leaders!
Ideally, a student trip leader would have participated in a previous ASB Trip or similar travel experience but we open the positions to the student body. A student trip leader is a motivated, service-driven and skilled individual that will plan and lead a high quality ASB trip! There are two ways to become trip leaders, by: leading an existing ASB Trip or by proposing a new trip that partners with local community partners to address social justice issues. The Alternative School Break Trips are held during Spring Break; Sunday, March 17th to Friday, March 22nd. Below are criteria for an ASB trip leader.
- Participant on an Alternative Break program or comparable travel experience
- Leadership, Organizational, Budgetary skills
- Responsible for organizing and coordinating all the logistics for the trip with local community partners
- Recruitment of participants on campus
- Planning the ASB reflection components and leading a group of peers
- Commitment to attending leader training workshops and meetings with the ASB Team
- Time to organize your ASB Trip (kickoff meeting in October; bi-weekly meetings in Fall and weekly in Spring)
- Understanding of social justice that goes beyond volunteerism
