Student Involvement supports Alternative Break (AB) experiences which are week-long or weekend immersive service experience. A group of students travel away from campus with the goal of engaging within a new community through education, service, and reflection.
AB trips focus on various social issues such as racial justice, environmental justice, housing, healthcare, poverty, and more. By forgoing traditional academic breaks, students have the opportunity to participate in quality, community-based transformational service and dedicate their time to learning and interacting with different communities.
Contact Emily Harris
Assistant Director of Leadership and Community Engagement
Each Alternative Break focuses on a specific subsection of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aligning our efforts with global initiatives for positive change. For more information, please check out the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs website.
Participants
As a participant you can expect to develop a variety of skills, including:
Trip Leaders (TLs) are one of the most crucial pieces of the Alternative Break (AB) program. As a student-led program, AB takes pride in our leaders and the rich experience they bring to this para-professional role of the program.
As a trip leader, you will take an active role in educating and leading peers through a service experience focused on a social issue that you are passionate about.
TLs are held to a high standard and expected to:
During the 2017-2018 academic year, thanks to funding from the UNG Presidential Award Grant, the Alternative Service Break (ASB) program was created. The program started off as a co-curricular service-learning program that worked to expanded community engagement opportunities for students at the University of North Georgia. ASB educates students about social issues and communities in need through a hands-on, experiential learning opportunity with the goal of developing students into active citizens. To ensure the reciprocal benefit, the trip was intentionally designed to provide strong direct service, orientation to the social issue and site, education, training, reflection, reorientation, and diversity, while remaining alcohol and other drug free.
In the infancy of the program the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic started and ASB stopped formally hosting trips. The program was able to be restarted in the year 2023 under new advisory leadership and officially rebranded to Alternative Breaks (AB).
The revamped programmed added a greater emphasis on connecting student’s social identities to their service experiences and helping them better understanding underlying social issues and deepen their awareness of critical societal challenges.This included incorporating the UN Sustainable Development Goals into the program.
Past Trips
Mission
The University of North Georgia Alternative Break program empowers students to engage in immersive service-learning experiences and foster a more equitable and inclusive society through education, reflection, and service. We create community-conscious and educated students who are committed to pursuing social issues and positive social change in diverse communities.
Vision
Our vision is to cultivate a community of socially conscious and educated students who collaborate to address critical social issues and contribute to a just and thriving global society. We strive to expand our collective identity as a multi-campus institution to unite our students in our on-going mission of creating meaningful and positive impact as community collaborators.