Alternative Service Break Experiences

• This team will travel to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina to work with the Rutherford Housing Partnership, a 25-year-old 501(c)3 non-profit organization designed to address urgent home repairs affecting health and safety in Rutherford County communities. While being immersed in the culture of rural Appalachia, you will gain a better understanding of how housing insecurity and economic disparity affects rural communities here in North Carolina, and the nature of a community-centered response.
• Dates: October 11th-October 15th
• Estimated Cost: $100-$150
• Team Leaders: Grace McCoy & Bobby Taylor

• This team will travel to Washington DC to engage in a variety of direct service and educational opportunities to better understand the cycle of poverty in an urban setting. Service will primarily focus on food security and homelessness alleviation.
• Dates: October 11th-October 15th
• Estimated Cost: $400-$500

• Our team will travel to Braga, Portugal to work with The Fuller Center for Housing which is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that seeks to eradicate poverty housing by promoting partnerships with individuals and community groups to build and rehabilitate homes for people in need. Global Builders teams work in and around Braga, an ancient city of about 200,000 residents that today is renowned for its architecture and advanced industry. Though a well developed area, some are left behind and needs remain, such as overcrowding, houses without sanitation and drinking water, electrical issues, and poorly insulated homes. 
• Dates: December 12th-19th
• Estimated Cost: $1800-$2200
• Team Leaders: Madeline Scott & Amaya Beard

• Servicio Para la Paz (SPP) facilitates community driven development in marginalized communities in the Republica Dominicana through shared experiences with Dominican and USA university student volunteers. Established in the Dominican Republic in 2005, Servicio Para la Paz has worked towards promoting the development of more than 14 communities with infrastructure projects and community empowerment through community councils. These internal projects have included the construction of a classroom, river flood protection wall, and a water tank for clean water access. Servicio Para la Paz also collaborates with institutions that support the same programmatic areas we work with.
• Dates: December 12th-19th
• $1600-$1900

Alaska 2016 VIDEO

Alaska 2019 VIDEO

ASB Alaska is an education-focused trip. This team will be assisting in the Hoonah public schools, the Head Start Program, after school club, and the Senior Center. There may also be an opportunity for community involvement projects. The trip highlights the Native Alaskan culture, as well as the importance of the environment and natural resources. This experience is a great cultural exchange learning about the traditions and history of the Tglinit people.

• Break dates: March 6-16, 2025
• Cost: $1600-$1900
• Team Leaders: David Seig & Kristen Evans

Volunteers on ASB Costa Rica will work with People First Tourism. This trip focuses on disrupting an industry that often takes advantage of the people and places that make it profitable in the first place.

Participants will engage in experiences centered on environmental ecotourism, stay in community centers, and partner with the community to complete projects meant to enhance local resources. Participants will embark on an excursion to Earth University which has an innovative educational approach to prepare young people from Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and other regions to contribute to the sustainable development of their home communities while constructing a prosperous and just global society.

• Break dates: March 7-15, 2025
• Cost: $1900-$2400
• Team Leaders: Abby Kidder & Lory Gonzalez-Tecun

Servicio Para la Paz (SPP) facilitates community driven development in marginalized communities in the Republica Dominicana through shared experiences with Dominican and USA university student volunteers. Established in the Dominican Republic in 2005, Servicio Para la Paz has worked towards promoting the development of more than 14 communities with infrastructure projects and community empowerment through community councils. These internal projects have included the construction of a classroom, river flood protection wall, and a water tank for clean water access. Servicio Para la Paz also collaborates with institutions that support the same programmatic areas we work with.

• Break dates: March 7-15, 2025
• Cost: $1600-$1900
• Team Leaders: Bobby Taylor & Laura Zacharauskas

Every year, the Women’s Center teams up with Student Leadership and Engagement to host an Alternative Service Break trip to Guatemala focusing on gender issues.

Participants on this trip explore:

traditional understandings of masculinity, femininity, and non-binary gendered identities,
historical and contemporary manifestations of gender-based violence in Guatemala, and
how gender influences the daily lives of Guatemalans, often evidenced most clearly through structured systems which perpetuate situations of poverty and restrictive definitions of how people experience life.

• Break dates: March 7-15, 2025
• Cost: $1900-2200
• Team Leaders: Hyasen Grey & Tyra Frye

Team members will serve with Project Ix-canaan, an organization that exists to enable and empower the local Mayan community to protect and save their own rainforests. Year by year, Project Ix-canaan develops in new ways, working with everyone in the local community, from young children and doting grandparents to the town mayor and business leaders. The medical clinic is a staple to the village, as are the dental clinic, women’s center and brand new child development center. The women’s center gives local women the chance to work together in their own space, away from the home, socializing and learning new crafts and business skills. The child development center is an integral addition to the project, giving the region’s girls and boys, who often work in the family business from a young age, the much-needed space to just be children; to learn, to study, and to relax and have fun together in a safe and nurturing space. The medical and dental clinics have been providing safe and effective healing for illnesses and minor injuries for over two decades.

• Break dates: March 7-15, 2025
• Cost: $1900-2200
• Team Leaders: Emma Norris & Willamina Ingle

SEEDS Iceland was founded in 2005 as a non-governmental, non-profit volunteer organization with
international scope. The organization’s main activities focus on the promotion of environmental protection and awareness, intercultural understanding and peace, through voluntary work on social, cultural and
environmental projects in Iceland.

SEEDS works closely with local communities, local authorities and other Icelandic associations both
to develop projects in partnership, aimed at fulfilling an identified need, and to give vital assistance to
established initiatives. Projects are designed to be mutually beneficial to all involved: the volunteers
and participants, the local hosting communities and Iceland as a whole.

• Break dates: March 7-15, 2025
• Cost: $1900-2200
• Team Leaders: Trey Mumma & Danielle Lewis

With Rome being home to principal global organizations focusing on world hunger, ASB Italy will focus on the driving forces of food insecurity. Through meeting with United Nations agencies, including the World Food Programme (WFP), UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), and US Mission to the United Nations (USUN), and volunteering with Caritas, students will explore policies surrounding world hunger and gain a deeper understanding of the entities driving this global crisis.

• Break Dates: March 6-15th, 2025
• Estimated Cost: $2200-2400
• Team Leaders: Abby Mulry & Jake Skarbek

Visit Site

Volunteers are the heart and soul of the Village. Our passionate volunteers contribute their time and talent helping to create priceless memories for critically ill children and their families during magical weeklong wish vacations in our whimsical, storybook Village.

Serving in a variety of unique and diverse roles, volunteers enjoy a truly rewarding experience helping to deliver happiness and inspire hope for our precious families. From serving “Ice Cream For Breakfast” in Henri’s Starlite Scoops and operating our accessible rides, to assisting with wish family check-in, every task undertaken by our wonderful volunteers is impactful and meaningful – bringing us one step closer to transforming lives.

• Break dates: March 8-15, 2025
• Cost: $750-$900
• Team Leaders: Elena Zuidema & Faith Williams

Public Health Brigades is an international movement of university students working to improve health conditions in the developing world. Through an evidence-based model, we work alongside local community members to build projects that tangibly improve lives.

Access to a reliable, affordable, and adequate water and sanitation services are an essential part of life, but are lacking in rural Panama where 10% of the population do not have any access to sanitation services, and among those who do, 31% use non-hygienic latrines. Public Health Brigades fill this gap in Panama by working together with community members and our local technicians to construct “sanitation stations” (bathroom, shower and water-storage tanks). Volunteers not only directly fund and build these projects themselves they support our long-term sustainability through the follow up of previously constructed projects and facilitate workshops about hygiene and sanitation practices.

• Break dates: March 7-15, 2025
• Cost: $1700-$1900
• Team Leaders: Akshar Patel & Emma Budden

The Fuller Center for Housing is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that seeks to eradicate poverty housing by promoting partnerships with individuals and community groups to build and rehabilitate homes for people in need.

Ancient Peru was the seat of several prominent Andean civilizations, most notably that of the Incas. Currently, Peru is a country where 44 percent of its people live below the poverty line and over 70 percent of the rural population live in homes with dirt floors. The Fuller Center Peru is at work in the small migrant community of La Florida, roughly 3 hours south of Lima. It falls within one of the most arid regions on earth, receiving little or no rainfall. Agriculture is maintained through a system of irrigation canals that bring water from the higher elevations of the Andes or from artesian wells sunk below the desert.

Fuller Center homes are typically 650 square feet and built on families’ own land. For many of these families, their Fuller Center home is the first permanent dwelling they have ever lived in and owned. Families perform sweat equity and sign an affordable, no-profit, no-interest mortgage agreement. In 2019 we completed our 100th home, and counting.

• Break dates: March 7-15, 2025
• Cost: $1800-$2000
• Team Leaders: Naomi Bouedo & Andrew Hammock

Community Collaborations International has tackled environmental restoration, housing resiliency, childhood education, and community-supported agriculture projects in Puerto Rico. They’ve stood strong through several hurricanes, earthquakes, school closings, covid shutdowns, and economic challenges, continuing to make significant positive impact on the wellbeing of local communities, families, and on our volunteers.

• Break dates: March 7-15, 2025
• Cost: $1300-$1600
• Team Leaders: Lauren Kielty & Lily Smith

The Rwanda spring break experience is a transformative opportunity which focuses above all else on cultural exchange and STEM focused education in community schools. Students will have the opportunity to visit the University of Rwanda, the Women’s Center, and the Genocide Memorial. Participants stay at the real “Hotel Rwanda” and also go on a safari and dive into the history and culture of this amazing country.

• Break dates: March 6-15, 2025
• Cost: $1000
• This experience is for COE enhancement fee paying students only
• Team Leaders: Alysha Jarvis & Sophie Van de klashorst

Our team will travel to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina to work with the Rutherford Housing Partnership, a 25-year-old 501(c)3 non-profit organization designed to address urgent home repairs affecting health and safety in Rutherford County communities. While being immersed in the culture of rural Appalachia, you will gain a better understanding of how housing insecurity and economic disparity affects rural communities here in North Carolina, and the nature of a community-centered response.

• Break dates: March 8-15, 2025
• Cost: $350-$400
• Team Leaders: Caitlyn Harvey & Leanne Hilou