When some of their classmates will be lounging on sunny beaches, basking in the luxury of a week free of classes, nine Hopkins students will be putting down their notebooks and problem sets in exchange for construction paraphernalia. They'll be spending spring break in El Paso, Texas at one of the city's Habitat for Humanity sites.
The uncharacteristic March trip is one of those offered annually by Hopkins Hillel. Yearly projects alternate between community service in the United States and abroad.
Senior Aron Davidowitz was among a group of students that spent Spring Break 2003 on a Habitat site in El Paso.
Having had a positive experience building housing in one of El Paso's low-income areas, this year he is helping Hillel's assistant director Rachel Heimann organize the event. "I went on this trip two years ago," he said. "This time I'm taking on more of a planning role."
The El Paso program was selected as this year's project in order to give students a chance to see and to serve a new place.
"It's nice to give back to a different community," Heimann said. "It's warm, few students have been there, and when we went there last time we had a wonderful time."
Alternative spring breaks, like the Hopkins trip, which is sponsored by Hillel and requires that students supply only $300 of the $1,000 it will cost to transport, house, feed and entertain each student in the group, are becoming increasingly popular.
At some schools, trips allow students to complete compulsory community service. There are companies that ally with schools or student groups to organize trips. And while some, like the one Davidowitz is organizing, have a religious affiliation, others do not.
One of the most memorable aspects of the 2003 trip to El Paso, according to Davidowitz, was working with a group of students from Creighton University, a Jesuit school in Omaha, Neb., that had driven down to help out on the same Habitat site.
"It was one of the highlights," he said. "You know, meeting other college students who nobody would have met otherwise."
He noted that it was particularly interesting to watch the interaction between Jewish and Catholic students all of varied practicing levels. "Just the conversations that came up. They would say, ??"Kosher? What does that mean,'" he said.
The opportunity to spend time within the Jewish community is something Davidowitz feels draws students to the alternative spring break trip. "From talking to them, the general theme was motivation to do community service," he said. "Number two was to get to know another group of Jewish students on campus." The group will be a diverse one, with students from each class year.
The Hopkins students will spend four days around the Habitat site, spending their nights in church basements or community centers. After completing a day's work they'll participate in social activities aimed at developing their Jewish faith or just having fun. The agenda might even include a little local sight seeing. "We went line dancing one night last time we were down there," Davidowitz said.
The last two days of the trip will be spent interacting with members of El Paso's Jewish community.
Families in the community hosted Hopkins students every night on the trip two years ago.
Planning for Hillel's spring break trips generally begins at the end of first semester, for those interested in future projects. This early time commitment might have influenced the low application turnout the group received this year, according to Davidowitz.
But nonetheless, those who are attending the trip this Spring Break have a memorable experience ahead of them.
"It's designed to take 10 Jewish Hopkins students, who may or may not know each other, and throw them into an intense environment for a week," he said. "They then come back to Hopkins and apply these lessons."
