Instead of taking off for warmer climes to work on their tans or show off their new beach bods, two groups of UMass students are spending their time off helping others in need. The Undergraduate Student Senate unanimously approved $7,800 dollars in funding for two spring break relief trips organized by the Office of Student Leadership and Community Engagement (OSLCE).One group of students will go to Atlanta, Georgia to do disaster relief work in homes that were damaged by September’s floods. Another group will travel to El Paso, Texas to work with a nonprofit organization, Habitat for Humanity, to build and renovate homes in the community. “It’s important for the student government to support our students in endeavors outside the immediate university community,” said senator Keith Raboin, chair of the Budget and Finance Committee.”It puts the university’s name out there in a very good way and it enriches the college experience of the students who are able to go,” he added.Both trips will have an educational component. The students going to El Paso will be focusing on immigration issues, while the students in the Atlanta trip will be studying topics about civil rights.Charmin Delara, community outreach coordinator through Massachusetts Campus Compact AmeriCorps*VISTA program and advisor for the El Paso group, said that the spring break trips will leave an enormous impact on students.”After the students go on these trips, their ideas about community service and involvement in school will change,” she said. “They will have a real opportunity to reflect.”Even with the funds approved by senate and extensive fundraising efforts leading up to Valentine’s Day, it seemed for a while that the OSLCE was still shy of its goal. Delara and her colleagues were frantically working on a backup plan to go somewhere closer, such as Washington DC.Fortunately, in the week and a half between the student senate’s decision and the deadline, OSLCE was able to scrape together the additional $8,000 dollars needed to finance their original plan.The OSLCE has been organizing relief trips since 2009. All students are encouraged to apply, regardless of prior volunteering experience. The OSLCE is planning to offer students the option to assume a lot more responsibility.”Next year, we’re going to have applications for students to be trip leaders,” Delara explained. “Students will be a hundred percent in charge of where they go and what they do.”To donate to the relief trips, contact Delara at [email protected] or stop by the OSLCE on the third floor of Campus Center.