February 23, 2011

Wayne State University students will be living, learning and making a difference in Detroit during Alternative Spring Break - March 14-18

During a week when many college students travel to warmer climates, 60 students from Wayne State University will spend spring break in Detroit making a difference. The students are participating in a service-learning immersion program called Alternative Spring Break Detroit (ASBD), now in its eighth year at Wayne State.

ASBD participants volunteer at nonprofit organizations for five to six hours each day. They eat at culturally themed restaurants each night, stay in a downtown church and attend sessions that focus on education, crime and blight, arts and cultural awareness, and hunger and homelessness. The ASBD program helps students let go of negative stereotypes and increases their awareness of issues affecting the city. It also gives them a connection to Detroit beyond what they experience at Wayne State. The program inspires students to become active members of the community; many past participants have formed new volunteer organizations to continue the work they started during spring break.

ASBD is sponsored by the Dean of Students Office and the Detroit Orientation Institute.

For more information contact Kelly Duca, coordinator of student life, urban volunteers and parent programs, in the Wayne State University Dean of Students Office, at (313) 577-1010 or ej8833@wayne.edu.

For more information on ASBD, including a photo gallery of previous sessions, visit http://doso.wayne.edu/asbd/.

Media is invited to cover the ASBD activities.

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Wayne State University is a premier urban research university of higher education offering more than 400 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 32,000 students.