EAST LANSING, Mich. — Thirty Michigan State University students will trade their suntan lotions and swimsuits for hammers and nails to help rebuild New Orleans through MSU’s Alternative Spring Break program March 3-10. 

“People understand that there is still so much work to be done down there,” said Katherine Greenup, an alternative spring break tri-chairperson. “Last year we spent a lot of time gutting houses and cleaning up the area.Our students will do a lot of rebuilding in the community this year,” added Greenup, an MSU junior from Dearborn. 

The annual program offers students the opportunity to help people in need by traveling to 20 communities in North and Central America.With almost 300 participants this year, the program is one of the largest offered by universities nationwide, she said.

“We provide a way for students to volunteer and positively affect the world,” Greenup said. “I think it’s inspiring. People learn that while they’re on these trips they can make a difference, even if they just help one person.

“We think about a problem and set up programs so we can use our skills to help serve those communities.”

Greenup, a marketing and international business major, will apply what she has learned at MSU by helping job seekers work on their resumes and cover letters at an employment agency in Alaska.

A new Georgia program offers an opportunity for premed students to gain hands-on experience while assisting at the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, said Sahar Eftekhar of Okemos, a premed and psychology senior.

“Students get training the first day, and after that they can help out in the hospital and get first-hand experience in patient care,” said Eftekhar, an alternative spring break tri-chairperson.

Other locations in the United States where MSU students will be helping others are San Francisco, Kansas City, Washington D.C., South Dakota, Tennessee, New York, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. International sites are Puerto Rico, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico and Canada. New sites this year are in Costa Rica, Panama, Alaska and Georgia.

Students will raise AIDS awareness; provide disabled children therapy through horseback riding; help in classrooms in impoverished areas; work on an American Indian reservation; work in a soup kitchen; and construct wheelchair access ramps. Internationally, students will volunteer in schools; assist in restoration and beautification projects; help workers in a disabled home; and teach English as a second language.

For a week, students live, eat, sleep and work together, often becoming very close, Greenup said.

“A lot of times people go on the volunteer trip by themselves and come back with 12 best friends,” she said. “Everybody just has a real positive experience. People just feel good about themselves after helping others.”

The Alternative Spring Break program has placed teams of college students in communities to engage in community service in a living and learning environment since 1991.

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Michigan State University has been advancing knowledge and transforming lives through innovative teaching, research and outreach for more than 150 years. MSU is known internationally as a major public university with global reach and extraordinary impact. Its 16 degree-granting colleges attract scholars worldwide who are interested in combining education with practical problem solving.