Location: Bowdoin / McKeen Center / Service and Leadership / Alternative Spring Break

Applications for the 2010 Alternative Spring Break program were due at 5:00pm on Monday, October 26.  If you have any questions about the application process please contact Sarah Seames at sseames@bowdoin.edu or x4133.


Building a house in West VirginiaAlternative Spring Break (ASB) trips provide a unique opportunity for students to participate in an intensive public service experience while increasing their understanding of significant social and environmental problems.  Engaged in direct service relating to these problems, students live and work in communities with which they otherwise may have little contact. Being completely immersed in this environment over an extended period of time allows students to internalize their experience, which can serve as a springboard for a lifelong commitment to social change.


Student Leadership

Alternative Spring Breaks are organized and led by students who want to provide an intensive learning through service experience. ASB leaders are responsible for all aspects of the alternative spring break trip, including recruiting participants, trip logistics, coordinating with the host site, and leading the actual trip.

Leader Selection

2009 ASB LeadersASB proposals and leader applications are reviewed each spring for the following year by a committee of students, faculty, and McKeen Center staff. Those leaders whose trips are selected receive support from the McKeen Center to plan and implement their ASB trips.

Leaders' Seminar

During the fall semester, ASB leaders participate in the Leaders' Seminar, a 10-week course facilitated by the staff of the McKeen Center. This seminar prepares leaders how to organize and lead their trips and to help student participants examine the political, social, cultural, and economic aspects of their service and the communities in which they will be living. Through this seminar, leaders develop their own seminar which they lead for their trip participants in the spring.

Interested in going on a future trip?

Group with community in PeruStudents interested in participating in the Alternative Spring Break program must submit an application to the McKeen Center each fall. During spring semester, participants attend weekly pre-service meetings to prepare them for their service experience. These meetings include background and cultural information about the site, educational visits from Bowdoin professors, reading assignments, film viewing, fundraising, and team-building activities. During the trip, students participate in meaningful service activities, daily reflective sessions, and evening group activities at the site. After returning to campus, students work together to educate the larger Bowdoin community about their issue area and experience. 



In 2009, Alternative Spring Break trips went to New Jersey, Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, and Peru. To learn more about these trips through pictures and written reflections click here.


For more information about the Alternative Spring Break program contact Sarah Seames, Assistant Director for Community Service Programs (sseames@bowdoin.edu).