I spent my spring break in Puerto Rico: digging a lot of holes, harvesting oranges and cow-peas, learning to Bomba (a traditional Puerto Rican dance), and building permaculture gardens – all while doused in as much SPF 45 as I could get my hands on. Oh, and there were some beaches too…
This amazing break was made possible through Northeastern’s Alternative Spring Break program. My team and I were able to travel to a remote part of Puerto Rico to live and work on an organic permaculture farm for the whole week of spring break. And we weren’t the only ones.
This year ASB boasted trips to 15 different places around the US and Latin America, including Oregon, Louisiana, Utah, Maine, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and more. 186 Northeastern students participated this year, completing over 6,500 hours of service and traveling a total of more than 35,600 miles! Don’t believe me? Check out this cool infographic by Northeastern News.
I’ve had the luck to be able to participate on two different ASB trips: Puerto Rico, mentioned above, and Ecuador, which I traveled to my freshman year. Each were truly incredible experiences. In Ecuador we worked in a small town north of the city of Otavalo to build a wall to prevent bank erosion. We were able to interact and work directly with the townspeople to create what they needed and were welcomed into their community with multiple dinners, dances and hikes. It was awesome.
Here’s what we built:
And here’s some of the amazing food we ate!
ASB is one of the best ways to get out and see the world while simultaneously getting out of your comfort zone. It is not a vacation – you’ll work hard and sweat a lot. But the experiences you’ll have and the friends you’ll make are more than worth it and are all a part of one of the most valuable and amazing opportunities Northeastern provides. Both of my experiences with ASB were amazing and I hope to participate in the program as many more times as possible, which is totally a thing – you can go every single year if you want to.
If you’re interested in learning more about Northeastern’s Alternative Spring Break, stop by the ASB Expo on March 26th to see and learn all about this year’s trips and talk to some of the people that participated on them! Find us in the Curry Indoor Quad, 6-7pm.
If you want some more great photos now, check out #nuasb2014 on instagram for pictures from all 16 of the amazing trips!!