Service learning courses offer spring break opportunities

"Earn Credits While Performing Service!" These words greeted many residence hall students when they received the "Alternate Spring Break" pamphlet in their mailboxes. The Community Outreach and Partnerships in Service-Learning is offering six-week classes, which include a week of service during spring break, where students can earn two credit hours, according to the pamphlet.\nStudents can choose from five topics in a class called L200: Reflecting Social Action. Some of the topics include "There are children here," where students work at a camp in South Bend for inner-city children, and "Mexican Culture-In-Service" where students travel to Guanajuata, Mexico and work in local organizations in need of service, while living with a host family.\nThe person behind the creation of the program is Carl Ziegler, director of Collins Living Learning Center. \n"There is often a lot of volunteer work that goes on during spring break, yet often it is not academic -- simply service," Ziegler said. "I feel that preparation and reflection are necessary components for volunteering to be successful. One day, I brought up the idea of this 'Alternate Spring Break' program at a large meeting we had and the project took off from there. I wrote up the grant for Lilly and laid it all out for them."\nAnother topic for the class is "Sources of resilience in people and community," which allows students to work with classmates and Bloomington at-risk youth to create a resilient community at Bradford Woods.\n"Resilience is understanding how to survive and thrive in the face of stress and adversity and become better because of it," said Fritz Lieber, a class instructor. \n"The students and about a dozen at-risk youth live together over Spring Break in a community to work on creating a resilient environment," he said. "We live in cottages and cook meals together. We support each other." \nTwo sections of "A spring break for kids" will be offered. Students who take this topic work with children living in Bloomington's transitional housing and homeless shelters\n"The focus of my class is on adventure. I teach about the importance of adventure in order to have a healthy, happy life," said Rachel Galloway, a graduate student teaching the program. "We talk about the issues the children that we will work with face. Over spring break my students work with the kids at shelters planning activities and taking field trips to places such as the Indianapolis Children's Museum and Spring Mill."\n"Experience learning is equally, if not more powerful than classroom learning," Galloway said. "The fact that you are not only learning, but seeing those things you learned directly put into practice is incredibly satisfying." \nOne of the transitional housing facilities the class works with is The Rise, which is similar to Middleway House.\n"I initially signed up because it looked like something interesting to do over Spring Break and I wanted to work with kids," senior Monte Simonton, a youth programmer at The Rise who participated in the program last year, said. "Now I know working with children is something I want to do for the rest of my life." \nBetsy Zillinger, who works with Simonton, said "I would definitely recommend this program to anyone interested in social work or non-profit work. Although it is most certainly a positive experience for anyone."\nAnn Roth, a sophomore and student leader in last year's program, said the kids appreciate the time students spend with them.\n"It's amazing to see how much good can come from just one week; the impact you can have on people in just a short time is astounding," she said.\nAccording to the Alternate Spring Break pamphlet, any student can register for the South Bend and Bloomington classes. There is a language prerequisite of Spanish 250 or higher and an application process for the Mexico class.\n"Being a part of this program has opened so many doors for me," Roth said. "The job I have now, working at the Boys and Girls Club, is a result of this program."\nFor more information, contact Community Outreach and Partnerships in Service-Learning. If interested in the Mexico course, contact Catherine Gray at catgray@indiana.edu or 856-5686 as soon as possible.