As other students while away Spring Break in the Ft. Lauderdale sun, Colorado College students will be restoring the Canyonlands and working with children in Chicago.
CC's student-led alternative Spring Break program, called BreakOut, will take place March 13-23. Students may volunteer to go to Santa Fe for organic farming, do restoration work in the Canyonlands forest, help out at Chicago's Children's Place, and lend a hand at the United Way in Minneapolis.
BreakOut began in 1989 when a group of students organized a trip to Tijuana, Mexico, with Habitat for Humanity. On past BreakOut trips, students have served food at homeless shelters, built or renovated low income housing, tutored young children, and helped construct schools in poverty-stricken areas.
In addition to the community service component, BreakOut seeks to expose students to new communities and different languages, cultures, religions, social classes, economic levels and values. BreakOut trips apply classroom knowledge to real life situations to help students enhance leadership skills. In addition to spring break, the BreakOut program sends out two to five trips every block break, incorporating reflection and service learning as large parts of its mission.
Approximately 70 percent of CC students participate in some form of community service during their years on campus. CC students volunteered 2,160 hours last fall, including trips to the homeless shelter in La Puente, Colo., and the Navajo Reservation shelter for women and children in Shiprock, New Mexico.
After graduation, CC students remain active volunteers. Colorado College currently boasts 20 of its alumni serving as active Peace Corps volunteers, ranking #8 among colleges and universities with fewer than 5,000 undergraduates. Last year, CC ranked #9, two years ago CC was 7, and three years ago, the Peace Corps honored CC as #25 among colleges in total volunteers from among its alumni serving since 1961.
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