Welcome back from Spring Break, Columbia!
While many of you were relaxing on the beach or hanging out at your hometown’s locales, some of our fellow students were exploring the opportunities Columbia’s alternate spring break trips offered. May of these trips were service-centered, although some corresponded with courses and education.
You’ve probably seen signs for these programs. I, unfortunately, rushed by these signs hanging on the bulletin boards. Perhaps if I had given it more thought, I could have been a part of some great adventures! It’s definitely something all of us should keep in mind when making plans for spring break next year.
Here’s a highlight of some of this year’s alternative Spring Break trips.
Students selected through an application process went on the Gequa Ecuador Alternative Spring Break Program trip, or Gender EQUAlity-Ecuador. Gequa Ecuador, according to its Facebook page, is a “co-ed alternative spring break service program aimed at exploring the development of the roles of women in our global society.” The trip has been running for seven years so far, and applicants were selected in November 2012 for the Spring 2013 trip.
Ecuadorians involved with Gequa talk about their perspective on Columbia students’ efforts in Ecuador in a video. Alfredo, the President of the NGO “Unidos y Brethern” featured in the video, states “as humans, we are still very much connected to unite to do a lot for this world. We have common feelings about inequalities and injustice.” Gequa aims to do something about the injutices they see in Ecuador, and help make it a place with more equality.
A field trip to Death Valley was the reward for 18 students in one of Nicholas Christie-Blick’s geology courses. Students camped out in the desert, climbed steep slopes, avoided scorpions, cooked meals and studied geological formations all around Death Valley’s rich environment. The trip corresponded with a weekly course that ran up to Spring Break, so the students could apply the knowledge gathered in the class on the trip.
CU Global Health’s service trip to Costa Rica tried to expand medical care in the area. Students spent 10 days in San Jose, Costa Rica, as well as taking trips around the area. The trip was sponsored under the umbrella organization CU AMSA, Columbia University American Medical Students Association, of which CU Global Health is a part. Centered on medical activities, students had to perform standard check-up activities and, according to the AMSA website, “get a hands-on look into the dynamics and challenges of healthcare in another country.”
Unfortunately, these trips may not be accessible to the entire student population. One student who chose to remain anonymous told me about her frustration with a trip’s rapid and unexpected price hike. She was excited to go somewhere for a low cost, but “when they changed the price a month before leaving for the trip, I couldn’t afford it,” she says.
Nonetheless, alternative Spring Break trips provide valuable opportunities for students who wish to expand their education beyond Morningside Heights. So, when you see the posters reminding application deadlines for the cool trip in Ecuador or California, be sure to check it out. Here’s to Spring Break 2014!
Photo credit:
GEQUA’s Facebook page