Four years after Hurricane Katrina, red signs still mark the doors of destroyed homes in the 9th Ward, tallying the number of deceased people and pets who once lived within.
“It was creepy. A little eerie to see,” said business sophomore Lauren Clark, who traveled to New Orleans with 14 other students to do volunteer work there in March.
“When I told people about the trip, people would tell me, ‘Aren’t you going a little late?’,” Clark said. “But, no, there’s a lot to be done.”
The New Orleans trip is just one of many to come for Cal Poly Alternative Breaks — a new program that helps students plan trips domestically and abroad to volunteer in underprivileged communities between quarters.
Alternative Breaks started two years ago when the first group of students decided to travel to New Orleans through Student Life and Leadership. After rising interest in the program, the organization successfully made the two trips to New Orleans, one to Jamaica and is planning an upcoming trip to Oaxaca, Mexico.
“The mission of alternative breaks is to provide students the opportunity to reflect on positions of privilege,” parks and recreation junior Jody Weseman said. She has been the Alternative Breaks coordinator since fall 2008.
Before coming to Cal Poly, 29-year-old Weseman worked for the California Conservation Corps and did volunteer work around the country.
Working in the forest and park service meant being laid off in the snowy winter. During her off-time, Weseman traveled abroad instead of paying rent in the United States.
For her, philanthropy is food for the soul.
“I want to live the rest of my life somehow making enough money to live, but always directed at helping the greater good, the greater global community,” she said. “For me it’s not a question, it’s just something I’ve always done.”
Weseman said travel and immersion in another culture is one of the most life-changing experiences one can have.
“You can study all you want about all the cultures, but until you’re out of your comfort zone, eating their foods, sleeping in their beds, breathing their air, there’s no way to get that perspective,” she said.
A week in New Orleans
This past spring break, Cal Poly students traveled again to New Orleans where the group tutored children at an elementary school, served food at a church and helped paint homes.
Clark describes the trip as a perfect mixture of volunteering and touring the city where the group was immersed in the culture of New Orleans.
From witnessing the death-tallied doors to working in a strained educational system, Clark said her experience was a real eye-opener.
“I had no idea what was going on there. It definitely changed my view on things going on in the country. The (federal) government looks over a lot,” Clark said. “Those people need so much help.The people feel so abandoned down there. I just learned a whole other lifestyle that exists in this country.”
One factor that surprised Clark was the racism that exists among young school children.
“A lot of the kids there have just grown up with racism,” Clark said. “When I (arrived), a girl who had blond hair like me, came up to me and the first thing (the other students) said, ‘Oh, she’s like you’. You could tell there was a separation of black kids and white kids.”
The Cal Poly students served as role models to the children, who were largely from impoverished communities within New Orleans.
Clark observed a shortage of teachers and lack of discipline within the education system.
“I mean, I think we just made the kids’ day,” Clark said, reflecting on her time with them.
During their stay at the church, the group met many community members that came in for a hot meal. One 60-year-old man stood out to Clark. Even though she doesn’t remember his name or where he is now, his story is forever imprinted in her mind.
After his house flooded and he lost his cat, he stayed in the Superdome without food or bathrooms. In an attempt to find comfort elsewhere, he waded through the water to the convention center, but conditions were no better.
A year after the initial devastation, he found his cat.
“I just feel like that they understood what we were doing,” Clark said. “You could tell just the power…knowing that there’s this group of college students that are willing to put off their spring break and go rebuild the city.”
The next trip
The next group will travel to Oaxaca, Mexico from July 24 to August 7, where they will work with the Commission for Defense of Human Rights, harvest plants and learn traditional weavings from Vida Nueva — a woman’s cooperative and visit the Monte Alban and Milta ruins.
Although there has been talk in the media about dangerous Mexican drug cartels, Weseman says it’s safe.
“That’s like saying don’t go to the U.S. because L.A. has gangs,” she told a group of students at an Alternative Breaks info session. “It’s a little narrow-minded to give into the media hype.”
Fifteen students can attend the trip, but they must go through an application and selection process. The students will live in host homes and hostels during their stay.
Alternative Breaks will partner with ProWorld, a volunteer and study abroad program, for the the trip.
“It’s structured, but not so that you don’t have freedom,” Weseman said during the information session.
(Click here for a list of upcoming inforomation sessions.)
The future of the program
Although Alternative Breaks is widely unknown, Weseman said that based on her feedback from the New Orleans trip, the program has huge potential.
Of the 15 students who attended the New Orleans trip, eight are now working as volunteers in the program to help other students have the same opportunity.
“From the New Orleans trip, the 15 of us really made a difference,” liberal studies senior Amanda Jeffreis said. “We were just kind of pumped up about getting the word out and doing more.”
The volunteers are writing marketing plans, promoting the trip to Spanish classes, developing a logo and writing grant proposals. If popularity for the program continues, Weseman said she’d like to see another coordinator hired so two groups of 15 students could attend. Although the coordinators have planned all trips so far, the eventual goal is for trips to be planned around student needs.
“We want alternative breaks to be a place for students to go when they have a passion to go somewhere and do a service,” Weseman said.
For example, if a student wanted to do a senior project based around volunteer work abroad, he or she could use Alternative Breaks as a medium for advancing that trip.
“You can learn by reading, you can know by doing, but you don’t really have a full understanding until you’ve lived it,” Weseman said. “It’s just really powerful to be selfless for at least one week of your life.”
If you are interested in participating in the Alternative Breaks Program, please contact cpalternativebreaks@gmail.com. Read their blog for more details about previous trips.