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.


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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.”

This year, ASB has expanded to include trips during the Thanksgiving, winter, Martin Luther King Day, spring and summer 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.

The cost of each of the ASB service trips vary. The Martin Luther King trip is $150. The Thanksgiving, winter and spring break domestic trips are $300, and the international trips are $1200.

In addition to the service the students provide to the community they travel to, the students develop a special bond with their fellow Auburn students on the trip.

“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.”

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