When college students go on spring break, one word comes to mind: relaxation.
Students book trips to California or Florida to soak up the sun while other students return home to take a much-needed rest. Some NCC students chose a nontraditional spring break trip to a BREAKAWAY destination.
BREAKAWAY trips are service trips that NCC offers to “foster educational, cultural and vocational growth opportunities.” The goal of the trip is to challenge students by stepping out of their comfort zone and serve in an area with other students.
Over spring break, four trips were offered. Each week-long domestic service trip cost $250 and students traveled to West Virginia, New Orleans, Detroit and Nashville.
Detroit’s theme was faith and economic security and was sponsored by the Office of Faith and Action. It was in partnership with The Motown Mission Experience in the city. The theme for Nashville’s trip was civil rights and community development. Through Sankofa, students traveled to Alabama and Tennessee. The New Orleans trip looked at how the city was recovering after Hurricane Katrina.
Students traveling to West Virginia engaged in farming and faith at Bethlehem Farm in Alderson. The trip was sponsored by Catholic Cardinals. Bridget O’Brien, ’21, went to the farm in Alderson, Washington, over spring break.
Alderson is located in the Appalachian Mountains range. O’Brien described it as a different world.
“It’s on top of one of the mountains in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. It’s like a completely different world I guess you could say compared to Illinois with all the flatlands,” she said.
This was O’Brien’s second trip with Catholic Cardinals. Last spring break, she attended a BREAKAWAY trip with Catholic Cardinals where they traveled to Kansas City to Jerusalem Farm. At Bethlehem Farm, O’Brien and her group worked to help the people there. For one family, they repaired a broken roof. They also helped a farmer gather wood to help build their farm.
The farm explains itself as a community that “revolves around the cornerstones of Community, Prayer, Simplicity and Service.”
The group that traveled to the farm also built community. O’Brien said the best part about her trip was the community that the group built amongst themselves because of the limited access to technology.
“First of all, there was no service anyway so we couldn’t really use our phone. And it was just nice for us to all be unplugged because when you’re on your phone, sometimes no one is talking so it’s just awkward,” said O’Brien. “Without anyone using their phones, when we would sit down to eat, everyone would just talk to each other and have a conversation and that’s one of the things I liked, it kind of formed a community.”
Compared to Naperville, Alderman was very different in the way that they lived. O’Brien explained it as a lack of resources. The farm values sustainability to conserve these resources and protect the planet. O’Brien explained how they practiced sustainability.
“They have a compost system, they don’t use dishwashers, they don’t have television, they try to help the planet as much as possible. They only allowed two showers a week… you couldn’t waste water so you couldn’t flush the toilet all the time.”
O’Brien said it was a struggle for her because it was different, but she didn’t think of it as bad. “I know it’s about helping the environment,” she said.
Even though the trip was different from a traditional spring break vacation, the experience was worth it for O’Brien. She said that everyone enjoyed the trip and even though they had to do chores and work to help people, it was a breath of fresh air.
“You’re in a different world and you get to take a break of other struggles or worries you have on an occasionally daily basis. It was just a break from everything,” O’Brien said.
As NCC transitions to semesters next year, BREAKAWAY trips are still undetermined.
