Auburn University’s Alternative Student Break invited all Auburn students to apply for the chance to spend the academic breaks throughout the 2010-2011 school year making a difference in someone else’s life.

“Alternative Student Break is a program for Auburn University students to apply to do community service during the academic breaks,” said Haley Fitzgerald, ASB assistant director of publicity and a ASB participant.

ASB is offered by the Office of Community Service aimed at engaging students in service projects that promote a better understanding of the world's social issues and an opportunity to grow as an individual.

It began two years ago as the Alternative Spring Break. Its first trip was spring break 2009 to Charleston, S.C., where 19 Auburn students worked with Habitat for Humanity.

In 2010, Alternative Spring Break held three service trips during the 2010 spring break. To encompass its growth, ASB chose to change its name to Alternative Student Breaks.

“Auburn students should apply to this because it has been my favorite experience ever,” said Fitzgerald. “Everyone that I have gone with the past two years has said the same thing. It is just amazing to see the work you can do in people’s lives who are less fortunate than you and also just to spend time with people who want to do that too.”

Poojit Ravikumar, 2010 ASB participant, said that it was such a fun and rewarding experience.

“[At the end of the trip] we didn’t want to leave,” he said.

Ravikumar attended the 2010 Ocala, Fla., spring break trip with 14 other Auburn students and worked with Habitat for Humanity.

“We worked on putting up dry wall, building fences and digging ditches,” Ravikumar said.

Ravikumar said one rewarding part of the trip was on the Wednesday before the trip everyone was tired, so the family that the house was being built for came and cooked dinner for them.

“It really gave us encouragement to keep going,” he said. “They were just so happy.”

Fitzgerald attended the 2009 spring break trip to Charleston, S.C., where she and 18 other Auburn students worked with Habitat for Humanity, and the 2010 spring break trip to Spartanburg, S.C., where she again worked with Habitat for Humanity.

This year, ASB has expanded to include trips during the Thanksgiving, winter (Dec. 11-19), Martin Luther King Day (Jan. 12-17), spring (March 12-20) and summer ( May 7-15) breaks. ASB even offers three international service opportunities during the winter, spring and summer breaks. The winter break team will serve in Ecuador. The spring break team will go to the Dominican Republic, and the summer team will serve in Ghana, Africa.

This year’s trip projects includes more opportunities with Habitat for Humanity, animal rehabilitation, housing restoration, working with special needs children and adults. The trips are coordinated to work with volunteer organizations. Each project focuses on building relationships between the students and the people they are serving.

Fitzgerald said one of her favorite memories was going to a soup kitchen during her Spartanburg, S.C., trip.

“We went to a soup kitchen and the city of Spartanburg was so welcoming to us,” she said. “I was expecting to help serve, but it was so humbling that people were serving us the food. It was just a random lunch break from our Habitat group and just seeing the community and everyone appreciate our service was just really humbling.”

Ravikumar is serving as a site leader on the 2011 summer ASB trip to Ghana from May 7 to 15.

“I have no idea what to expect,” he said. “It’ll be something totally different. We’ll be working with kids.”

In addition to the service the students provide to the community to which they travel to, the students develop a special bond with their fellow Auburn students on the trip and get to partake in some of the traditional break activities.

“It is just so amazing to get to know a random group of people that you probably never would have met,” said Fitzgerald. “You just become so close with them. It’s really an Auburn family because some of the sites that we go to do community service, have other universities there, and you’re all a unit.”

Ravikumar said that the students get to know one another well at night when they get some down time. After finishing work each day they get to choose how they spend the evening.

“We went to the University of Florida, went to the beach,” he said. “Sometimes, we would just stay at [the lodge we stayed at], and we went to a place that had go-karts. All the times we had together, going to the beach and go-carting, and even the car rides were fun.”

The cost of each of the ASB service trip varies. The Martin Luther King trip is $150. The Thanksgiving, winter and spring break domestic trips are $300, and the international trips are $1,200.

The application process can either be completed online or by paper copy. The process does not include an interview, but requires applicants to answer short essay questions.

“The main part of the deciding factor is the essays,” Fitzgerald said. “There are just some short essays to describe your culture, why you want to go on this trip or what do you hope to learn from the experience.”

To apply online or for more information, visit auburn.edu/impact/asb. To apply by paper copy, visit the student organizations office in office 3130 in the Auburn University Student Center.