For the Center for Service Learning and Volunteerism and vOLLUnteer Unit Council, the words Spring Break have a different meaning. This year, Alternative Spring Breakers are traveling to Baton Rouge, La., on March 10 to help Youth Oasis.
           
Youth Oasis is a nonprofit agency dedicated to providing resources and support services to at-risk youth. Their slogan, “When your door closes, ours opens,” shows the dedication and effort put in so that troubled teenagers can turn their lives around.
           
This attitude is one of the reasons why Marisa Espinoza, student director of ASB, chose Youth Oasis. As a social work major, Espinoza says she enjoys helping people and has been drawn to troubled teenagers. Youth Oasis was a perfect opportunity, and  “everything just fell in place,” she says.
           
The goal of ASB is to “expose and immerse students to service outside their own community while providing such an amazing and rewarding experience for them,” says Jennifer Bendele, the associate director of CSLV and also the adviser of ASB. 

In addition, Espinoza states that it is important for students to “realize what it is like not to have a home, and be in their (the teens’) position.”
           
Last year, Alternative Spring Breakers traveled to Florida to help with Hurricane Ivan relief. Every day consisted of work, fun and theological reflections at night.

Work consisted of tearing down and renovating the houses. “The first day we had to tear down a mobile home piece by piece” so the new house could be built, says Espinoza.

After the work was done that day “all that was left were railings.” The rest of the days were spent on working on one house, helping with such things as installations and drywall.

Fun consisted of going to the beach in the afternoon, and gathering at the end of every day. “We would have theological reflection and prayers with students,” she said.

These reflections helped students get the “new perspective on life and switched their lives around” as Mariolinka Chaplin, one of the student volunteers, remembers. “It was an amazing experience, probably the best experience in my life,” she says. Chaplin added that “seeing peoples’ faces when they thank you” was priceless.
           
Espinoza says that she hopes that “this year’s experience is the same or even better than last year.”
 
There is a certain connection that is formed while a group works together helping people. “I still talk to all (the) participants today,” says Espinoza. She urges any interested students to “give it a try, it is a really neat experience.”