Carnegie Mellon's student organization Alternative Break began in August 2005 as Tepper fifth-year Nuveen Marwah's Fifth Year Scholars project. The Fifth Year Scholars Program allows graduating seniors to spend an extra year at Carnegie Mellon – at no cost of their own – to pursue further academic study and a project that will enhance the Carnegie Mellon community. Although community service based spring break trips have been organized in the past through groups such as Student Development and Habitat for Humanity, Marwah believed that an organization specifically dedicated to creating community service winter and spring break trips would benefit the University. Alternative Break has continued to work with Student Development on planning its trips.

Marwah created Alternative Break shortly after a Fifth Year Scholars' trip to California where he was able to talk with Stanford and University of California at Berkeley students who led their own colleges' alternative break organizations.

"Two days before the fall Activities Fair, Alternative Break was just me," said Marwah. Since then, the organization has expanded into a six-person executive board and hundreds of interested students.

As Marwah and co-organizer CIT first-year Brad Millerlooked into traveling to the Gulf Coast region of Mississippi to help those still affected by Hurricane Katrina, people from the area told them that there was "nothing left down there." However, as students and staff members discovered when they arrived in small-town Bay St. Louis, MS, there was plenty left: overturned trees, dangerously moldy homes, and struggling, but hopeful, residents.

From January 3 through 8, Carnegie Mellon community members spent time in Bay St. Louis helping residents gut out the insides of their ravaged homes. Although Hurricane Katrina, the sixth-largest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, swept through the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern United States in late August, many areas of Louisiana and Mississippi remain largely untouched since the hurricane hit.Many buildings still have extensive damage from the surge of flood waters brought on by Katrina.

CIT senior Ray Wong recalled how Alternative Breakers found food, still wet and covered in mold, in the refrigerators of some of the Bay St. Louis homes. Many residents had neither the physical ability nor the material means to clean up any significant portion of their houses.

"They were really impressed [with our group]," said Wong of the Bay St. Louis residents, who greatly appreciated the college students' assistance. "We found neighbors who were helping out each other, but they are going to need so much time to rebuild."

"It's just scary," said HSS senior Joe Phillips, who was stunned by how much work still needed to be done to restore the Gulf Coast.

Alternative Break was helped by Bay St. Louis'  Main Street United Methodist Church., which was able to connect the group with those in need.

Participants who went on the winter break trip took video clips of those they helped to bring back to Pittsburgh.

"Everyone here is just so overwhelmed… lost," said one Bay St. Louis resident named Scott. He told those on Alternative Break a tragic story of a 10-year-old boy from the area whose body was found in a tree after the hurricane. "There are a lot of sad stories like that," Scott said. He added sullenly, "I try not to think about them."

In addition to lamenting the disorganization of government aid, from the local to national level, Bay St. Louis residents expressed the trouble they have hadwith their insurance companies.

"They said my house was all flood, no rain," one woman reported bitterly. Out of three insurance policies, she said that she and her husband received a meager sum of money from only one of them.

Some residents took a lighter tone about the Katrina disaster.

"I came here from North Carolina [about six months ago]… my timing was real poor," one man joked.

In February, Alternative Break plans to show a video that documents the Alternative Winter Break experience, including the interviews with Bay St. Louis residents and numerous photographs from the trip.

Alternative Break's next trip is over spring break (March 10 – 18) to San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico. Fifteen students will be flown from Pittsburgh to San Diego and will work with one or more of the following four charitable organizations: Flying Samaritans, Border Angels, the California-Mexico Health Initiative, and SURVIVORS of Torture International. Flying Samaritans, Border Angels, and the California-Mexico Health Initiative all attend to the health needs of Mexicans, whereas SURVIVORS focuses on helping any immigrant who has been a victim of government torture. Trip coordinators HSS senior Kris Elder and CIT sophomore Chad Pugh are also researching "fun" activities, such as going to the San Diego Zoo and the beach.

M. Shernell Smith, who has served as staff advisor for Alternative Break, strongly encourages students to go on a community service trip. Smith reported that a student who had spent her spring break in West Virginia doing service said it was "the best money [she'd] ever spent at Carnegie Mellon."

Registration for the spring break trip ends on Monday, January 23, and the application is available on the Alternative Break website. Currently, the cost of the inclusive weeklong trip is estimated at $400.

For more information about Alternative Break, contact Nuveen Marwah or Shernell Smith. For additional information about the spring break trip specifically, contact Chad Pugh or Kris Elder.

Editor's Note: The author was initially informed that the Alternative Break group worked with First Methodist Church in Bay St. Louis, MS. The paragraph originally read:"... First Methodist Church, which has been established as a Federal Disaster Center. The church gives out provisions such as meals and supplies to locals and volunteers as the town continues to rebuild. First Methodist was able to help the Alternative Break group connect with people in need."

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