WASHINGTON – Hundreds of Howard University students will begin rolling into cities across the nation March 13 for their annual spring break, but these students won’t be there to party. Instead, they will skip the beach or the trip back home to travel to five of the nation’s cities to help children struggling with gangs and gun violence, adults and teens who don’t know how to read and a city still trying to recover from a hurricane. It is called Alternative Spring Break (ASB), and every year hundreds of Howard students volunteer to participate in the student-run, student-financed program.
This year, nearly 300 Howard students will be working from March 14 to March 19 on youth development in Atlanta and Washington, on gun violence in Chicago, on literacy in Detroit and on the environment and other issues in New Orleans. Overseeing all of the operations is student Erica Jai Lindsay, a Chicago native who also will be the site coordinator in Atlanta this year.
On Sunday, March 7, much of the university’s student body took to the streets to collect money during a 12-hour radiothon with D.C. powerhouse WHUR 96.3 FM. The students raised $25,350 through donations over the radio and from people on the street who filled “Helping Hands” buckets.
“We could be going to the beach or just hanging out back home like so many people do during spring break,” Lindsay, 20, said, “but we’re doing this. We do it because we care. We want to help people. We want to serve. That’s personal and part of the university’s tradition.
In Atlanta, the nearly 100 students there will be working with the city’s new mayor, Kasim Reed, a Howard alum, to help clean up the city and to work with at-risk youth in order to convince middle and high school students to consider college after graduation. They will also be doing a project with students from Morehouse College.
More than 80 students will travel to New Orleans to plant trees and clean up a city park.
In Detroit, Denys Symonette is coordinating a week of literacy efforts. The students will be working with children and adults at local schools and at a Salvation Army facility. “For me, this is part of my spiritual journey, part of my faith as a Christian,” Symonette said. “If you’re a Christian, you help people.” –ron harris
(Howard University student Erica Lindsay pictured holding sign above)
