<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>It's been a long time since I've been on CC, but I'm trying to reach out to people of all demographics for my spring break trip--including those lurkers and posters on CC..after all, I am one myself!</p>
<p>The USC Volunteer Center offers many Alternative Break trips for students, staff, and faculty to spend their spring breaks giving back to the world instead of, say, going to Cabo. The one I am coordinating this year goes to Bluff, Utah (near Four Corners) and works with the Navajo reservation. Alternative Spring Break Navajo Nation is both USC's longest-running alternative break trip (since 1991) and historically the Volunteer Center's trip with the most participants.</p>
<p>Past projects with ASB Navajo Nation include weatherproofing and painting homes in the harsh desert area; helping Transitions, a program combating Navajo Nations' traditional attitudes towards special needs adults; and motivating elementary school students on the reservation to see through their education. New projects in mind for ASB Spring 2012 could incorporate working with Navajo Nations' war veterans who have received fewerpost-war benefits and with drug prevention or rehabilitation clinics to aid in decreasing the steadily growing illicit drug problem in the reservation. </p>
<p>Any and all of these projects will occur in the context of cultural awareness of the Navajo culture, its traditions, and its people through continuous interactions with contemporary Native Americans through day-to-day conversations, nightly reflections, and ritual ceremonies such as participating in a sweat lodge and sleeping in a hogan overnight.</p>
<p>Applications are available at <a href="http://sait.usc.edu/volunteer/Upload/Alternative%20Break%20Application%202011-2012z.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://sait.usc.edu/volunteer/Upload/Alternative%20Break%20Application%202011-2012z.pdf</a> and are due in October, and for more information, please visit ASB</a> Navajo Nation. Information session dates and other good stuff are on the site too! </p>
<p>I look forward to seeing "CollegeConfidential" listed as a way students found out about my trip on the application :) Anyone who has been on a similar spring break trip, please back me up! These trips are actually really awesome. </p>
<p>PM me if any questions!</p>