Alternative Spring Break: International Volunteer Travel Programs

Posted on Monday, February 28th, 2011 at 4:05 pm

It’s that time of year again – Spring Break! Finally, a reprieve from school and a time to do something exciting right before school starts back up in a week or two. While some people decide to relax by the pool, others prefer to do an Alternative Spring Break volunteer travel program that will give them the opportunity to travel internationally and help a community.

For those of you planning to do an Alternative Spring Break international volunteer program, there are many options that will give you an adventure where you can travel to another country, help improve a community, live with a host family, and sneak in some sightseeing! Some people travel to Europe, others to Latin America – it just depends on how you want to spend your vacation!

We interviewed Jenny, a student who decided to do an alternative spring break program for 10 days in San Vito, Costa Rica. Her Alternative Spring Break volunteer trip was a school-led international program that brought a small group of students to work on coffee and fair trade issues in a small town named San Vito located in Costa Rica. It was the first time that she had traveled internationally – especially important as fair trade was an issue she felt strongly about. When she arrived in Costa Rica, she met with local farmers to discuss the issue of their co-op coffee farm. Jenny met with various community members to see how coffee prices had affected the local community. She visited the community coffee roaster that had been shut down due to inadequate funding forcing the farmers to pay shipping to another town’s coffee roaster. She even worked with a machete to clear weeds, dug a trough to prevent soil corrosion, and learned about crop diversification. When she returned back to the United States better informed, Jenny felt empowered alongside her group members. With her new friends, they worked together with her school to help the farmers of San Vito by establishing a distribution channel for the fair trade coffee.

As evidence by Jenny’s trip, your alternative spring break can be just as exciting! There are many opportunities where you can volunteer internationally with your school or an independent program. Check out your school’s activity center to see what programs are available to you, or search opportunities on Idealist.org.

Once you have decided to go on your Alternative Spring Break where you will volunteer internationally, make sure to contact your current insurance company to see if your plan will cover you overseas. Some programs supply international travel insurance for their Alternative Spring Break international volunteer programs. If this is not the case you can purchase affordable insurance that is easy to use and can be purchased a few days at a time!

Posted by Jennifer Frankel

Jennifer is the International Director at International Student Insurance. Jennifer is a graduate of the University of Florida where she holds a Masters in International Business and a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration. She has lived and worked abroad in Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica and England, and traveled extensively in South America, Europe and Asia.