Miami Student

Issue date: 3/25/08 Section: Campus

Miami University students spend spring break in Metairie, La. reconstructing homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Instead of sunbathing on a coastal beach, some Miami University students spent spring break traveling the country-and the world-in search of job opportunities, new solutions to Mexico's labor issues and projects to rebuild the Gulf Coast areas still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

Although the alternative spring break trip is not a new idea for members of Students for Peace and Justice, by creating a blog, the group utilized new technologies to make its trip to Chiapas, Mexico more visible to the Miami community.

After approaching Paul Anderson, director of the Howe Writing Center, the group worked with the center to publish a blog highlighting the group's preparation for and progress of the trip, as well as follow-up reactions after returning to the United States.

Anderson said that although he didn't think of a blog before, it provided a great collaboration between students and the center to show how writing can be beneficial outside of the academic experience.

"One of our goals is to see that students and faculty fully appreciate great the great contributions writing makes to learning," Anderson said.

As part of the agreement, the center helped the group by providing some financial support for the trip.

Another group blazed the trail by planning an alternative spring break trip to D.C. for students from College Democrats, College Republicans and Associate Student Government to network with Miami alumni.

The trip, which was a collaboration of the Office of Institutional Relations, Career Services and students leaders, grew from a brainstormed mixture of Miami's Inside Washington program and trips other groups take to D.C., such as the College Republicans trip to the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Lisa Dankovich, associate director of institutional relations, said the trip fed directly into the office's goals.

"What we want to make sure is that Miami students have a pipeline to get out to Washington, D.C. ," Dankovich said.

Students got to see the sites of the city while meeting with people such as a speechwriter for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Mia DeNardi, Miami sophomore and a member of College Democrats, said the trip was a great introduction to the way D.C. functions.

Continued...

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