65 KU students serve as winter break volunteers in community service

LAWRENCE -- Winter break was shorter for 65 University of Kansas students who spent a week volunteering in KU's Alternative Winter Break Program, Jan. 6 to 12.

The winter break program allows students who apply and enroll in a special class, "Special Projects in the Community," to travel in groups of six to eight to sites across the United States to spend a week performing community service. The class focuses on service learning. Panels of past alternative break participants or community guests speak about issues students might experience as community volunteers. Team-building activities, such as preparing a "code of ethics" for each group of students to follow, may be included in the class.

For names of participating students, click here. These are the Alternative Winter Break sites and responsibilities:

 • Atlanta -- Students volunteer with Project Open Hand, an organization that provides and delivers meals to people in the community who are affected by HIV or AIDS. Volunteers help with food preparation and deliveries.

 • Elgin, Ariz. -- Students volunteer at the National Audubon SocietyØs Appleton-Whitte Research Ranch, where they help with wildlife-friendly projects.

 • Hammond, La. -- Students work in a rural wetland setting, planting and doing maintenance work with wetland tree species.

 • Houston -- Students work at the AIDS Foundation of Houston, where they assist with the MotherØs Day Out Program and volunteer in the food pantry.

 • Nashville, Tenn. -- Students work with Senior Citizens Inc. Victory Over Crime Program. The site allows educational and hands-on experience with clients.

 • Columbia, S.C. -- Students work in the Congaree Swamp doing infrastructure maintenance to enhance biodiversity research for the Americorps organization City Year.

 • Phoenix, Ariz. -- Students work one-on-one with core members of Teach for America, an organization that places college graduates in low-income schools to work as teachers for two years. Volunteers serve in classrooms to help mentor and teach the students.

 • Shiprock, N.M. -- Students volunteer at the Shiprock Home for Women and Children, a shelter for women and children who are escaping violence on a nearby Native American reservation.

 • Zellwood, Fla. -- Students volunteer at the Anthony House, which provides shelter and other services for the homeless. Volunteers help prepare meals and do day-to-day work around the shelter.

 • Health Site, Dallas -- Students work with United Cerebral Palsy-Dallas in a preschool, an adult day program and in several group homes for people with cerebral palsy.