Guatemala was added to the list of destinations students can travel to as part of this year’s Alternative Spring Break (ASB) program in order to meet increasing student interest, according to Jan Patterson, manager of the Student Experience Office (SEO).
ASB is designed to offer students the chance to travel abroad to help the less fortunate, according to their website.
“Each year, the program is becoming more popular with students,” Patterson said. “The number of applications received has increased.”
To accommodate the increase, ASB added a trip to the Everglades and New Orleans in 2010, Patterson said, and Guatemala this year.
She said she credits the increase to word of mouth.
“I think more students are hearing about ASB from their friends — there is a heightened awareness and this has created more interest in the program,” Patterson said.
Vanessa Griffiths said her experience was “beyond words.”
“We got to tour around San Salvador, the capital, and we had a guide who worked for Habitat for Humanity show us around, which was awesome,” said the first-year communications student, who travelled to El Salvador with 12 others to build a house in Tonacatepeque.
Griffiths said she credits the increase in popularity to an interest in getting a closer look at a different culture.
“It lets people immerse themselves with local art, food and the people — something that you can’t get by simply visiting a resort,” she said.