Teaching self-defense, creative writing and Internet skills to battered women at a shelter in Welch, W.Va.; providing educational and social activities for adolescent boys in a residential juvenile treatment facility in Lake Placid, N.Y.; and educating urban youths in New York City about their civil rights. These were just a few of the ways that nearly 150 Cornell students spent their spring break this year.

From Ithaca to Boston to rural West Virginia, dozens of Cornell students sacrificed a week at the beach or at home "chilling" to give back to communities through the Cornell Public Service Center's Alternative Breaks program. Students tackled service-learning projects related to urban poverty, hunger, inadequate housing, domestic violence, homelessness, civil rights, HIV/AIDS, farmworkers, at-risk youth and environmental damage.

"We developed the program to provide an opportunity for student volunteers to participate in alcohol- and drug-free, community-based service trips during their spring and winter breaks," says Leonardo Vargas-Mendez, executive director of the Cornell Public Service Center. The mission of the Alternative Breaks program, he said, is to promote service learning through direct community action in collaboration with regional, national and international communities to heighten social awareness, enhance personal growth and advocate lifelong social action.

Take Claire Min '08, for example, who recently returned from working at a homeless shelter on Cape Cod, Mass. "After meeting with more than 20 different people in one week, I learned that homelessness can affect anyone, anywhere," says Min, who is majoring in communication and applied economics and management. "It doesn't just affect drug abusers or lazy individuals, like many people assume. In fact, homelessness affects people of all ages who work as many as two or three jobs and have an entire family to support. It has just been unfortunate that they experienced a sudden rent increase, a layoff or debilitating injury. It seems unfair that people who are honest, work hard and spend years saving their earnings are still without a home."

Min's placement is an example of the program's mission to provide students with an opportunity to engage in reciprocal service in communities with whom they otherwise may have had little or no direct contact, and to learn about a variety of social issues, says Vargas-Mendez. Students are immersed in culturally enriching experiences that challenge them to think critically about the social and environmental issues that shape our society.

"Planning a curriculum, motivating a group and building our team in preparation for a week of volunteer work in an urban setting was more educational than any class assignment I ever had," says Ariel Brewster '05, who worked in a welfare rights union in a low-income neighborhood of Philadelphia on two Alternative Break trips she took as an undergraduate.

The program has grown from one trip of 13 students who worked in Welch, W.Va., in 1989 to nearly 150 students this year to sites that included Boston, Cape Cod, Ithaca, Lake Placid, New York City, Philadelphia and rural West Virginia.

In Ithaca, students worked at the Southside Community Center, Greater Ithaca Activities Center, food pantries in Brooktondale and Enfield and at the Human Rights Commission.

Students interested in Alternative Breaks must apply early in the fall semester, as most trips fill up by early November. Teams have mandatory weekly meetings throughout the year that focus on their trip's specific issues. See http://www.psc.cornell.edu or e-mail altbreaks@cornell.edu for more information.

Lisa Elliott is assistant director of external relations at the Cornell Public Service Center.