UMB students during Alternative Spring Break 2011 in Pensacola, Fla.
The Beacon Voyages for Service program (BVS) provides alternative vacation destinations for students that are passionate about community service. For the past three years, BVS has helped students organize trips across the nation and around the globe. While the causes vary from poverty to environmental preservation, the goal of each trip is the same: to provide a helpful service to a worthy cause.
During the upcoming winter break, students in the BVS program will travel to Tuscaloosa, Ala. and West Palm Beach, Fla. In Tuscaloosa, students will be aiding in disaster relief efforts; in West Palm Beach, students will work with Habitat for Humanity.
Fundraisers largely support BVS trips. Brianna Reyes, student leader of the trip to West Palm Beach, explained what it means to donate to BVS. “By donating to BVS you’re giving UMB students an opportunity for immense personal growth,” she said, “and supporting them in an effort to positively effect the lives of others.”
Students attending the trips to Tuscaloosa and West Palm Beach are fundraising for the rest of the semester.
BVS recycles all unused funds and evenly allocates the monies to all planned trips. Students who travel stateside pay a $150 deposit; trips outside of the U.S. require a $300 deposit.
Students who wish to lead a BVS trip must submit a proposal in early spring. Proposals must explain which charity or cause they would like to support and why, what they hope to achieve, how many people they would like to take, and during which break they would like to go.
BVS, in cooperation with Student Affairs, vets the proposals and interviews the potential trip leaders. Reshma Patil, graduate assistant for Student Leadership and Community Engagement, said that they “look for passionate people that can work well with others and have a clear objective” when interviewing prospective trip leaders.
Students who wish to attend approved voyages must submit to a unique interview process. Patil explained that the students are interviewed in groups of ten and are given a simple challenge, complicated by handicaps. For example, one group member may not use their eyes, the other their hands and the other their voice.
The goal of interview process “is to see how well they work together to overcome the handicaps. It is important that they can communicate well and work together,” Patil said. “It is also important that they demonstrate a real desire to be part of the voyage for the sake of the cause, not the vacation destination.”
Three voyages have been planned for spring break. In Culebra, Puerto Rico, voyagers will aid environmental preservation efforts. Voyagers in Lima, Peru will help construct an aqueduct that will provide much needed clean water. In Boulder Creek, Calif., they will interact with children between the ages of seven and nine at a camp.
Fundraising for those trips will begin at the start of next semester.
Two more trips are planned for the summer: one to Detroit, Mich., where voyagers will work on the issue of urban poverty; the other is Quito, Ecuador, and voyagers there will work with mistreated or abandoned youth.
To donate, make out a check to UMass Boston with Student Leadership and Community Engagement in the memo line and write the destination of the trip you would like to support. Cash donations and inquiries as to how to become part of BVS can be made on the third floor of the Campus Center.