Alternative Spring Break

For most college students, Spring Break (March 1-7, 2008) is a time to run off to a warm getaway with friends. RIT's Leadership Institute and Community Service Center has a better idea: "Alternative Spring Break." The 2008 Alternative Spring Break program will enable RIT students to help build and renovate homes for economically impoverished seniors and families in the Appalachian region of Fayette county, West Virginia. For nearly a century, Appalachian residents have suffered from a poor housing and a low quality of living.

RIT's 2008 Alternative Spring Break program seeks to partner with the Southern Appalachian Labor School Community Center. The Center helps volunteers to build, rebuild and renovate homes for poor seniors and families in the Lafayette County, West Virginia. As part of the revitalization project, RIT students may help rebuild or renovate turn-of-the-century temporary housing located in abandoned coal camps. Residents will then have the opportunity to purchase these properties based on what they can pay, rather than what the home costs.

The 2008 Alternative Spring Break trip will immerse students in a purposeful week-long service experience designed to connect our students and the community members of Appalachia. The daily volunteer projects will be focused, but not limited to, education, poverty, citizen involvement, women, and children. The day is not just devoted to the challenges of the volunteer projects. We want to challenge your mind as well. Every day at lunch, students will engage in lively discussions with neighborhood and community leaders. After dinner, students will attend educational workshops that will continue with the lessons learned from the projects during the day.

Information Sessions will be held: Dec 11, 2007. Please see our website's calander for time and location. Download Your Application Here due JANUARY 10, 2008