This spring, the Alternative Spring Break (AXB) E-board orchestrated five service orientated trips. AXB participants were able to choose between five locations: Barre MA, Greensboro NC, the Land Between The Lakes in Kentucky, Asheville NC, and Sussex County DE. Each location had a different service component ranging from volunteer work on a farm to assisting with a college’s refugee program. Trips each lasted one week, some taking place the first week of spring break, others the second. Groups met on campus and drove in jitneys to their destinations.
AXB-Co President, Mary Hurner ’24 led a trip to Greensboro, North Carolina where she and her fellow group mates volunteered at Guilford College’s “Every Campus is a Refugee program.” AXB Vice President Katie Rockford ’24, led a trip to Asheville, North Carolina to help with Habitat for Humanity projects. Hurner gave some insights into the planning process that goes behind the AXB program: “We designate one person to be the point person on each trip, coordinate with community partners, recruit students and do it!” Hurner outlined the planning that went behind the trip to Guilford, explaining that a professor at Hamilton College had a connection to Guilford College and connected the AXB E-board with the College’s program.
This was AXB’s third consecutive year working with Guilford College on their refugee resettlement program. Hurner shared “It’s really nice to have that continuity there. We’re only there for a week but they’re like ‘Oh we know the Hamilton kids, you were here last year.’” AXB’s runs a variety of trips each year. For example, this winter break, AXB ran a trip in which students worked in the Philadelphia School System. AXB makes an effort to diversify trips to meet students’ interests and the E-board is always looking into partnering with new community organizations.
Hurner and Rockford shared that it has been difficult to rebuild the program after its COVID-19 hiatus. “It’s still a struggle to get people to know about it because it’s something that kind of disappeared and didn’t have a presence on campus,” Hurner shared. “Once people do it, they fall in love with it, like some people on our trip were even nervous to go on it and now they want to go again last year and people really fall in love with the service work.”
AXB trips are another place for students to find community at Hamilton. Hurner compared AXB trips to the trips that OA runs with incoming freshmen. Students sleep on church floors, cook dinners and spend a lot of quality time together throughout their trip. “You have to be pretty independent to go on an AXB trip. It’s sophomores, freshmen I never would have met and you just have special bonds with them that adds a whole new element to Hamilton.” Hurner shared. Rockford concurred with Hurner: “I knew two people coming into my trip but now I just met five other people I didn’t know.”
Both Hurner and Rockford reflected on some of the most rewarding moments of their trips. “My trip was really special because we had a really diverse group of students on our trip, like international students, so when we went to work in this daycare center with refugee children while their parents were learning English, the Hamilton students were able to connect with parents and students who spoke these different languages that they speak. So it was such a meaningful impact for our students to find connection to these people in the U.S who come from similar backgrounds,” Hurner explained.
Rockford shared the most rewarding part of her trip: “Seeing the progress everyday. Myself and two of the other participants helped to build scaffolding around one of these houses and we did it from start to finish and we did it in a couple days and just seeing the progress everyday was such a big highlight.” Rockford shared a non-service oriented highlight of her trip which was when she and her group mates spent the day hiking a mountain in the Blue Ridge mountain range and grilled a dinner in a state park afterwards. Hurner explained that “You learn so much. You could go into an experience like this and have certain expectations about what it’ll be like or what you’ll learn. I think in some ways those expectations will be met but I think in more ways your expectations will be questioned.”
Hurner also noted that “You get to see a new part of the country which I think is special. Seeing what things are like in a different part of the country and how people live there is really special,” Rockford shared that the AXB trips serve as unique opportunities for learning: “At Hamilton you’re obviously learning in the classroom, but you learn so many things that you never would have learned in a classroom like how to build scaffolding, how to use a hammer, and even just talking with people from different backgrounds.”
Hurner and Rockford both have long standing commitments to service work. Rockford shared that in high school she volunteered to tutor inner city female students in Philadelphia and was heavily involved in her school’s Special Education oriented service work. Hurner explained that coming to Hamilton she knew she wanted to make service work a priority. During her freshman year, Hurner was involved in Coop’s CSI program, and she is now a senior fellow with the Coop. Hurner and Rockford were both placed in the community outreach floor their freshman year. Hurner commented that “there is room to improve and provide more opportunities to be involved in service. There are so many ways that that can happen. You don’t have to do something you don’t enjoy. There are so many ways you can do it that fits your interests.”
Rockford shared that she engages in service work in the spirit of giving back and because of the relationships that have come out of her service oriented experiences. For Hurner, people are at the heart of her commitment to service work: “You meet so many people and learn so many things from people.” Rockford and Hurner also commended Amy James, Director of Community Outreach, for being such an incredible mentor. AXB trips are great opportunities for Hamilton students to help communities beyond Hamilton while also building new bonds within the Hamilton community.
