ANN ARBOR—More than 300 University of Michigan students will trade fun in the sun for hammers, soup pots and delivery vans by participating in Alternative Spring Break (ASB) projects ranging from building houses in Clarksdale, Miss., and tutoring youngsters at the Children’s Shelter in Denver to feeding and tagging fowl at a bird emergency aid sanctuary on Big Talbot Island, Fla.

Started in 1990 by a few students who saw spring break as an opportunity to combine fun with service off campus, the number of U-M students participating in ASB projects has grown from its inception of two groups to 31 Project SERVE groups working in 16 states and Mexico this year.

” Our program is dedicated to providing break opportunities to as many students as possible while always trying to increase community impact and learning potential as well,” said Dave Waterhouse, staff adviser for ASB. ” With understanding and compassion, we hope to learn how we can effectively address the problems eating at the fabric of our society.”

Jeff Smithers, a third-year chemistry major at U-M has spent two spring breaks at the Cheyenne River Reservation in Eagle Butte, S.D. where he tutored high-risk children attending the Lakota Nation’s community boarding school. He also cooked lunches at the Reservation’s nutrition center which provides meals for the elderly. ” It was a relationship of equal giving,” Smithers said. ” I gave time and energy and unknowingly received more than I gave.” This year, students will help rebuild the nutrition center, which was recently ravaged by fire.

” Heralded by various sources as Vanderbilt University’s ASB consultants Break Away as National, Regional, and University Program of the Year, U-M’s ASB is recognized as one of the leading programs of its kind in the country,” Waterhouse said.

New programs and sites are continually being added to the ASB choices which this year will include a curriculum- based break with a seminar in women’s studies that will involve a ” street rescue” program for girls in Detroit, assisting them in finding alternatives to pregnancy, prostitution, and homelessness.

The increase in the number of programs and participants can be attributed to the positive experience the students find working with Project SERVE. ” A consistent comment,” Waterhouse said, ” is that these experiences profoundly change the way the students view community service, their goals and values, and life. Commitment to working against social injustice is a common outcome.”

The University’s assistance, along with the diligent work on behalf of the students to raise more than half of both program and site expenses, has supported the growth of the program. ” The University has recognized the importance of service to the learning and development of students, and the legitimacy of co- curricular community service learning programs such as ASB in this education,” Waterhouse said.