Alternative Spring Break

While most students spend spring break on the couch, Tigers spend spring break in the world. Pictured above, Trinity students spend their spring break in service.

Trinity’s alternative spring break program, now called Tiger Breaks, allows students to travel and explore different cultures, conduct service, and examine social justice issues. The program has three main components of service: education, volunteerism, and reflection. Students learn about cultural heritage, history, demographics, and current events, both in sessions before the break and during the immersion. After the trip, students gather together for a reception to look back on the experience. Students can even get academic credit for participation in the program.

The ASB has taken students around the country and abroad. In 2016, students spent the week volunteering at a school for special needs children in the Commonwealth of Dominica. Alternative Spring Breakers have also built orphanages in Cancun and dug irrigation systems in New Mexico. Some students have noted the irony of flying to party hotspots only to get their tans digging ditches instead of playing volleyball. The program grew out of the Trinity University Voluntary Action Community (TUVAC), which logs thousands of service hours each year on various volunteer projects.