March 24, 2003

Alternative spring break will benefit community

By Jennifer McNulty

For UCSC undergraduates Adam Thompson and Matt Donley, the idea of spending spring break sleeping late and goofing off didn't sound like fun.

Instead, they teamed up with several other students from Colleges Nine and Ten to design a community-service project for the week of March 24. Rather than head to Mexico, as many college students do over spring break, they decided to work closer to home and will spend the week volunteering with Barrios Unidos, the Santa Cruz-based nonprofit dedicated to ending youth violence.

"I've always had a desire to do something more, and spring break seemed the perfect time to do it," said Thompson, a junior majoring in information systems management with a minor in education. "We wanted to give other people a chance to participate, too."

After meeting with Barrios Unidos, the students identified three areas in which they could help, and rolled up their sleeves to devise a plan. As a result, they will help clear land Barrios Unidos (BU) recently acquired for a retreat center, provide team building and leadership training for students in an alternative high school and in BU's after-school program, and offer computer skills training to high school students and BU staff.

Thompson and Donley are so pleased by the reception they've received that they've already arranged to continue volunteering with BU through spring quarter. "The whole organization is about empowerment," said Thompson. "You walk in there, and within two weeks, they treat you like you've lived there forever--they're so welcoming and so grateful."

Already, three high school students asked Thompson to serve as their adviser as they redevelop the BU web site. Thompson, a fellow in UCSC's Global Information Internship Program (GIIP), specializes in providing computer support to nonprofits and will also help them apply for $8,000 in grants to support the overhaul.

The UCSC students established a new student organization, Friendship, Outreach, Community, United in Service, or FOCUS, to support their activities, and they hope other UCSC students will follow their example.

"We have such potential at UCSC to make an alternative spring break," said Donley, a junior majoring in politics. "We've created our own break that's tailored exactly to our needs."

The students have arranged to stay in their residence halls over the break and have raised more than $2,500 to cover the cost of their food and to help fund equipment upgrades in BU's technology lab, which Donley described as "woefully ill-equipped."

"This group of students has incredible esprit de corps," said Abbey Asher, special projects coordinator for Colleges Nine and Ten, who is supervising the students with Rachel Bauman, assistant college administrative officer of the colleges. "They came up with this all on their own, and they've learned so much already. They're an inspiration to us all."

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