While some students are heading home for spring break, others are spending their time traveling, some for fun and others to serve the community.
According to a collegenews.com article regarding spring break, over 200,000 college-aged students traveled to destinations away from home for spring break in 2009. Despite the economic recession, students will still be traveling, according to the author, Ryan Simmons.
Mayelin Torres, a sophomore criminal justice major, will travel to Boston next week to visit friends. Torres said she has never been to Boston, but she would rather be doing something else.
"I would rather be resting and sleeping," Torres said.
Some students have chosen spring break to do service.
Mark Cantine, a senior diplomacy major, is a student leader for the DOVE sponsored service trip to El Salvador. He is part of a group of 19 students who will be traveling there for an "alternative spring break."
During the trip, the students will visit two orphanages, a nursing home and a home for girls that have been victims of abuse, a cancer hopsital, and Oscar Romero's home and parish Cantine said.
Traveling to those sites includes visiting with the elderly, playing with orphans and participating in mass, prayer and reflection with the residents of El Salvador.
"We will look to be present to the people of El Salvador just as Christ is present to each of us," Cantine said in an e-mail interview.
Cantine said he is thankful for the opportunity to go to El Salvador and would rather spend his spring break there than anywhere else.
"I don't really see this as ‘giving up' my spring break. I see this as an opportunity to serve my brothers and sisters in Christ. I love being able to take part in this experience and am just thankful that I am able to go," Cantine said. "I think that any student you talk to would say the same thing. I probably would have just hung out around school anyway."
Another student, Tyres Jones, a senior finance major, is traveling to Puerto Rico, though he is going for fun.
Jones is traveling to enjoy the beach and he said he did not want to stay at home in central New Jersey.
"I decided to go for the scenery and the women," Jones said in an e-mail interview. "And if I stayed home, I would go crazy."
Jessica Sutcliffe can be reached at jessica.sutcliffe@student.shu.edu.
