For University of Idaho student Mikayla Johnson, winter break meant more than just comfy couches and Netflix.
Johnson, a psychology and Spanish student, chose instead to travel to Guatemala for an Alternative Service Break along with nine other UI students. The service breaks are organized by the UI Center for Volunteerism and Social Action, and Johnson, who has been on service breaks before, said they offer students the chance to spend their break doing meaningful work in a variety of locations.
Mikayla Johnson | Courtesy
Nine UI students spent their winter break volunteering in Guatemala on an alternative service break.
“They are really rewarding,” Johnson said of the service breaks. “It”s just really great to meet new people and do something different with the break we get from school, rather than sitting on a couch for a week or two and doing nothing.”
Johnson said she and the rest of her group spent their time in Guatemala learning and participating in agriculture and creating sustainable economies for local communities.
In order to do that, she said she and her team worked with a few cooperatives like the Women”s Weaving Cooperative in the Lake Atitlan area. During the first week of their trip she said the group stayed in Panajachel, a community near the lake, and built a wall that will protect the community from future landslides.
Johnson said building the wall now allows the WWC to continue weaving during Guatemala”s rainy season, which will aid the local economy.
Johnson said the group worked on a variety of projects during their second week abroad, including work with different plants and animals on a close-cycle farm and aiding beekeeper”s efforts to establish a sustainable water source for their bees. She said the team also finished construction of another protective wall around a school.
Johnson said service breaks can be especially valuable for students studying a foreign language. She said on this trip, she got to use her Spanish.
“It”s very rewarding to have a connection with someone because you share a language,” Johnson said. “I think you can miss a lot just not being able to talk with someone, but I was able to talk to most of the people we interacted with and get more details out of their stories.”
Johnson said a service break is also a great opportunity to meet new, interesting people.
“You don”t know anyone you go on the trip with and by the end you”ve made ten new friends you never would have met otherwise,” she said.
Natalie Magnus, coordinator at the Center for Volunteerism and Social Action, said the price of each trip can vary depending on whether the service break is regional, national or international. Magnus said there are need-based scholarships available for students interested in international service breaks.
“When thinking about what the price of a ticket would be to go on vacation it”s actually a great deal,” Johnson said. “You get all of that and it”s a whole different experience, living in these communities you get to experience things that no tourist would ever get.”
Magnus said there are 11 upcoming trips planned for spring break, and registration for future service breaks will be held at 8 p.m. Feb. 9 in the Whitewater Room of the Idaho Commons.
Austin Maas can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @austindmaas