Some Iowa State students spent their spring breaks clearing trails in Georgia and helping with hurricane relief in Louisiana through the Alternative Breaks program.

The Spring 2022 Alternative Break options included Common Ground Relief in New Orleans, La.; Cloudland Canyon State Park in Rising Fawn, Ga.; Serve901 in Memphis, Tenn.; and Food Bank of the Rockies in Denver, Colo.

“At first, I saw it was an option … I’m like OK, this sounds cool,” said Felix Baez-Santiago, a senior in data science who went to New Orleans. “Then I did a little bit of research, and I saw what they were doing. The New Orleans trip, in particular, was the one I wanted to go for because they were doing hurricane relief stuff.”

A group of 10 students, including Baez-Santiago, drove 15 hours to New Orleans to help with Hurricane Ida relief. The group planted trees to help protect the coast from further flooding and damage. 

“It was very structured,” said Baez-Santiago. “It just felt so different from real life. It felt like summer camp.”

Each Spring 2022 Alternative Break option was focused on community service and volunteering. Camden Troncin, a freshman in early childhood education, expressed why he decided to go to Georgia.

“I thought this would be a great opportunity to serve a community outside of Ames,” said Troncin. “The trip was very eye-opening to me.”

At Cloudland Canyon State Park in Georgia, Troncin and his group did trail maintenance within the park, including creating water run-off areas and staircases out of rocks.

“We did a lot of trail maintenance,” said Troncin. “They receive few volunteers each year and the people there were super friendly and very welcoming.”

Hannah Hawthorne, a junior in environmental science who went to Memphis, also shared her experience.

“My trip experience was a mix of bonding with the team and volunteering with some really cool Memphis nonprofits,” said Hawthorne. “Regardless of what we were doing each day we had fun, everyone on the trip was just excited to be there and meet new people.”

Hawthorne, and those on the trip with her, spent their time with different organizations in the Memphis area. One organization was Lifeline to Success, which employs ex-offenders and helps integrate them back into their community and WKNO broadcasting.

“I really enjoyed working with Lifeline to Success,” said Hawthorne. “The boys we worked with were incredibly kind and excited to meet people their age that didn’t judge them for their past. They all have such bright futures, you could tell they were ready to take on this new phase in their life, and we were all very happy to be a part of it.”

The Alternative Breaks program doesn’t have its Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 options finalized yet, but more information about the program can still be found on the Iowa State Student Engagement website.