UK Alternative Service Breaks is a program run by students, for students. We go beyond the borders of Lexington and Kentucky and offer you an alternative ways to spend your breaks!
In partnership with the national service organization Break Away, we do our part to connect UK students to service and learning opportunities across the U.S. and around the world. Whether your interest lays in health care, education, poverty, or emergency aid, and whether the community you wish to serve is local, regional, national, or even international, we have an opportunity that will match your personal passions with a community’s needs.
Even better, our list of Winter, Spring, and Summer Break service trips continues to grow so that you can find an opportunity as close as Appalachia or as far as Africa. With so many different issues to focus on and locations to travel to, you are sure to find the right alternative service break experience for you. Again this year, UK ASB will send one team of UK students to Jinotega, Nicaragua for a service immersion focused on Global Youth Empowerment during UK’s Winter Break (January 4-11, 2014). During Spring Break 2014 (March 15-22, 2014), we will also send teams of UK students to six locations – including four domestic and two international service immersions – each focused on a specific social issue. New this year, we will send a team of UK students to Ghana, Africa for a two-week service immersion focused on Global Youth Education during Summer Break 2014 (May 17-31, 2014).
Regardless of which service trip you choose, you are guaranteed to come away from your experience with new friends, new knowledge, a renewed sense of self, and a renewed desire to serve.
We hope you will join us for what we hope will be a transformative and life-changing experience for you. We say experience because involvement in UK ASB does not begin and end with your service trip. Rather, it extends throughout the academic year with orientation sessions, educational programs, service projects, fundraising events, and of course a reunion gathering! We believe each of these components contributes to the overall success of each trip – whether it prepares you, builds you, challenges you, supports you, or connects you. We expect that UK ASB volunteers make a full-year commitment to participating in UK ASB; we also challenge volunteers to extend their commitment to the community service beyond their participation in UK ASB.
Our goal is to build future leaders that are active, conscientious citizens. Our mission is about much more than the here and now. It is about future leaders making our future world a better place to be. As our motto says: “you’ve got to go there to know there.” So, our challenge to you is to go there. Go there physically. Go there mentally. Go there emotionally. Go there spiritually. Then come back here with the knowledge and know-how to make a difference wherever you go.
For more information, explore our website or contact us at alternativebreaks@ukcco.org. We look forward to seeing you on a future UK Alternative Service Break!