While the majority of college students across the country got absolutely plastered for weeks on end, the University of Delaware offered a much different approach to the traditional spring break. Instead of trashing beaches and hotels around the world, Delaware looked for alternative options for their students to actually benefit society.
According to their website, the university’s plan was to send some of their undergraduate students on service based learning trips over the winter and spring breaks. Their mission statement is “dare to make a difference.” Thanks a lot UD, making the rest of college students feel even better about what they did over spring break.
About the Program
The University of Delaware Alternative Breaks program (UDaB) is essentially the anti-spring break. UDaB is a student run organization and sent over 350 participants on 16 different trips over 2016 during the winter and spring breaks.
The students who choose to participate are sent all over to help communities in need over their breaks from school, rather than spending their time passed out on a beach somewhere in Cancun. The program is available to all undergraduate students and also tries to involve other groups from campus.
UDaB was officially launched in 2010 and the program has grown ever since. The first campaign began during the spring break of 2011 with 92 participants that were sent to five different communities in need.
The program works with bigger organizations each year such as Habitat for Humanity and the National Relief Network. Different locations for community service are listed on the site with multiple student leaders on each location. Each project is offered to a specific number of students with costs reaching as high as $790 and as low as $215.
Pretty much, students at Delaware are willing to pay as much as certain major spring break destinations would cost to better communities and areas in dire need of help. Well, shout-out to all those involved in UDaB for just being a bunch of great people, and making the rest of college kids coming back from spring break look like a bunch of degenerates.
UDaB Recruitment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M3Ssx8pHVc
