Groups head to Oklahoma, Texas

Skiing in Breckenridge or sleeping on the streets?

How would you like to spend a week during winter break?

About 130 University of Illinois students leave Urbana this weekend to head to places like San Juan, Texas, and Tahlequah, Okla., as part of Alternative Spring Break, a student-run program of the University YMCA.

"It's really great for education," said UI junior David Spearman, an economics and sociology major who expects to complete his third Alternative Spring Break trip by the end of the spring semester.

This coming week he will serve soup to the homeless in Washington, D.C., with the National Coalition for the Homeless.

And he will experience life on the streets. Newspaper insulation and all.

"It's called the Urban Plunge," he said.

For 48 hours he will eat, sleep and possibly panhandle with a guide, either a formerly homeless person or a currently homeless person.

Alternative Spring Break has expanded its trip offerings over the years, and it now includes service trips across the country during the fall semester, winter break, spring break and summer.

"You're helping out people who need a helping hand," said Mike Stephens, a UI senior and co-director of the program. And, "it's not supposed to be a one-week experience," he added.

Before each trip, students take a "pre-break" trip, such as a day volunteering or being involved in the issue of the trip's focus, such as hunger or homelessness, rural poverty or domestic abuse. They read articles about the issues they will confront and the communities they will visit. And every group raises money for the organization with which they will volunteer, Stephens said.

After they return, students will meet for coffee and share their experiences about the trip.

"A lot of students have had this one-track mind. It's all about me, about partying, about getting good grades," said Nicki Anselmo, a UI senior and co-director. With Alternative Spring Break, students "can meet other U of I students, explore the world outside their community and give their time."

Stephens, an engineering student, said he spends a lot of time on the north side of campus and part of what he likes about the program is meeting students from other parts of campus, students with majors different from his.

Alternative Spring Break started in 1989 with a single trip and has grown to include more than 30 trips. Throughout the year about 350 students will participate.

Winter break programs tend to attract the interest of students because they can visit their families, take a vacation and then "they're ready to get their hands wet and get involved," Anselmo said.

"It's a good way to volunteer and still have some time off," she added.

"It's cool to interact with people from different parts of the country, from a different culture and different backgrounds," said sophomore Brad Vonck, who will visit Oklahoma during winter break to learn about the Cherokee Nation, help renovate a church and clear a hiking trail.

Some students will work with farm workers in Texas. Others will work with children and teens affected by HIV/AIDS.

They'll stay in hostels or churches. And one group will camp along the Arizona Trail, an 800-mile-long trail from Mexico to Utah.

"You help people, you see another part of the country and you see how an organization helps its community," Anselmo said.