Spring break a time to give back, gain experience

For many Pitt students, spring break is spent relaxing at home after a hard half-a-semester’s work at Pitt.

But after spending a week lounging on his couch during spring break his freshman year, Ryan Sosh decided to put himself to a better use.

“At first it’s like ‘Oh Ryan, it’s so great to see you,’ and then two hours later my parents are like ‘Well, you are still our son, go and do something,’” he said.

Sosh, a senior nursing student, wanted to get more out of his future spring breaks and searched for something else to occupy the week each March. Now, Sosh is in his third year of participating in volunteer projects through Pitt.

This upcoming week, Sosh and a group of Pitt students will embark on Alternative Spring Break, a trip in which a group of college students engage in a community service project for a week. Other students — namely international ones — will have the opportunity to visit some of the country’s largest cities, immersing themselves in American culture.

Pitt’s Alternative Spring Break trips are coordinated by PittServes, which, according to its website, is a University-wide initiative that connects individual students and student organizations seeking service opportunities with local and regional organizations that need volunteers for projects.

PittServes offers students who want to get more out of spring break the opportunity to travel to other regions of the country to volunteer.

Since his sophomore year, Sosh has been traveling to the Cumberland Trail in Crossville, Tenn., over break.

In Crossville, Sosh and other Pitt students took part in building a part of the Great Eastern Trail.

Sosh was drawn to Alternative Spring Break because he could help people and also see the results of his work.

“I think the thought of building something and actually seeing what your work has done is really appealing,” Sosh said.

According to Sosh, when finished, the trail will stretch from Alabama to the Finger Lakes in New York and act as an alternative to the heavily-used Appalachian Trail.

Constructing the trail required physical dexterity.

“There were no cranes. You get down with your hands and knees and with help from a few other people, you push boulders to use as stepping stones,” Sosh said.

Sosh’s main worry the first year he participated in the program was not knowing any of the other volunteers.

“I had no friends going in,” he said. “It turns out that a lot of people that go on these trips are nice people.”

In addition to making new friends, the trip also serves to promote environmental sustainability.

“It’s a way of preserving the area around [the trail],” Sosh said.

While Sosh’s trip dealt with nature trails in Tennessee, there are also trips that go to North Carolina and Washington, D.C., through PittServes.

Carly Krystyniak, who went on an Alternative Spring Break last year to Washington through PittServes, will be a team leader this year. The role requires her to organize the trip and act as a chaperone.

One of Krystyniak’s favorite parts of the week is hosting a dinner for homeless people at a church in Washington. The students cook the meal from start to finish and interact with the people they serve.

“Last year, there was a man who we met who goes to the Library of Congress every day and just reads books,” Krystyniak said.

According to Krystyniak, the trip helps break down a lot of stereotypes about homeless people.

“Last year, I was kind of afraid to interact with homeless people, because you are always taught to be careful, but they are really not bad people,” Krystyniak said.

Aside from alternative spring breaks, international students from Pitt embark on cultural trips hosted by Pitt’s Office of Cross Cultural Leadership and Development.

According to Shawntia Key, Pitt’s international programming coordinator, the overarching goal of these trips is to ensure that students have broad new experiences in the United States.

Students on CCLD’s annual culture trips travel to some of the United States’ culture hubs, including Atlanta, Chicago and Washington.

“One of the reasons why we decided to start these programs was to teach students that they can have a cultural experience in the U.S.,” Key said. “A lot of people feel that to gain a cultural experience you have to go outside [the U.S.], but in a big city you have so many different cultural groups.”

Key has gone on trips to D.C. and Chicago over the past two years. The trips target international students and aim to show them U.S. culture and civil rights history.

“Chicago has very diverse ethnic neighborhoods and Atlanta has a very strong civil rights history, which is very powerful,” Key said.

The international students dive head first into U.S. urban culture and participate in a plethora of attractions, including ethnic neighborhood visits and museum trips. One experience, in particular, last year in Washington stood out to Key.

“We were on a walking tour and seeing their reactions to the Martin Luther King Jr. statue was crazy. They were so excited and took pictures imitating his pose in the statue,” Key said. “I feel like we take things for granted but it’s always great to see it from an international student’s perspective.”

The annual culture trips do not only host international students. For this year’s Atlanta trip, Key said that of the 12 students going on the trip, three are from the United States.

On CCLD’s trips, as well as PittServes’ alternative breaks, students have to foot a cost. According to Key, CCLD’s annual cultural trips cost about $350 per person, which covers food, housing, transportation and special-events costs.

According to Sosh, many students travel to “hot spot locations” with their friends during spring break.

“You are paying so much money for something that will maybe be good, but I know when I go down to the Cumberland Trail, I’m going to have a great time.”

Although volunteer work is the primary focus of Alternative Spring Break, students also have the opportunity to relax and enjoy themselves.

“I am going to go caving and jump in a freezing cold river. I’m going to swing on a rope tire and jump off into a lake. We get to climb down a muddy cliffside and jump into 45 degree water. That is how you bond,” Sosh said.

According to Sosh, the experience seems to be worth the cost. He has paid about $300 for his alternative breaks but received $90 back from PittServes in the form of a per diem check to cover food expenses.

Krystyniak said it was worth it to pay for a week to serve others.

“It is a little expensive but it’s more rewarding and cheaper than going to the beach,” Krystyniak said.

As for the cultural trips run by CCLD, according to Key, they offer an experience unlike any other.

“It’s really nice to appreciate the culture that America has to offer. Spring break doesn’t always have to be about partying it up, it is a great opportunity to get out of your comfort zone,” Key said.