Students have until Thursday to apply for Volunteer LSU’s inaugural Change Break event in Tennessee, which is a chance for them to participate in an alternate service project aimed at helping others.
The event will take place April 1 through 6 in Cosby, Tenn. Cosby was chosen as the first location for Change Break to give students a chance to experience an environment different from south Louisiana, said Assistant Director of Campus Life Josh Dean.
“There’s significantly high rates of poverty; it’s one of the poorest areas of the country. We wanted to go up there and address those issues and learn about poverty,” Dean said. “[It’s an] opportunity to get students into different communities around the country and around the globe to learn about different social issues from different perspectives.”
Change Break Tennessee 2013 will be the program’s first event after its creation last year and will be followed by Change Break Peru 2013 over this summer. The deadline to apply for the Peru trip has passed, but applications for the Tennessee trip are due Thursday and can be found at the Volunteer LSU website.
Those interested can also learn more by attending the general membership meeting at 6 p.m. today held in the event room in the LSU Bookstore. Student costs for the service trip are $50, which cover transportation, food and lodging, according to Dean.
Ten students will be chosen through an interview process to attend the Tennessee service trip and will be accompanied by two University advisers.
All majors and classifications are welcome to apply, said leadership and development junior Meredith Keating, International Service Chair for Change Break.
According to Dean, the selection process involves looking at what students want to take from the trip, including a desire to use what he or she learned by sharing it with others around the community.
Students get the chance to see first-hand what poverty and hunger actually look like, Dean said, while getting a chance to compare those experiences back in Baton Rouge and Louisiana.
“[They will] also learn a lot about themselves through these experiences, too, because they are kind of able to see themselves no longer as a person who’s always been in Louisiana or always lived in Baton Rouge, but a picture of a bigger puzzle on a global or national scale,” he said.
University of Tennessee leadership service ambassadors will accompany volunteers on a service project around Knoxville before parting while Change Break continues to Cosby for the duration of the trip.
According to anthropology junior and Change Break coordinator Kayluh Williams, the goal of Change Break is to make a difference in another community while receiving a deeper understanding of oneself and the satisfaction of “truly affecting another.”
“[It’s] to challenge students’ perspectives and also to learn more about yourself,” Dean said. “When you go into these new environments, you really get to test your leadership skills, and you get to challenge maybe some of the beliefs and opinions that you’ve previously held. So I think it prepares you to be a better leader in the world after graduation.”
“[It’s an] opportunity to get students into different communities around the country and around the globe to learn about different social issues from different perspectives.”
