Seth Mecklenburg | Arts & Life Co-Editor
This spring break, students will be going all over the world for Buena Vista University’s (BVU) Alternative Week of Offsite Learning (AWOL). AWOL is a chance to give service to those who need help. This year, there are four trips: two international, two domestic. Of the four trips, two are mystery trips where the locations are later revealed.
Instead of doing three trips as AWOL usually does, this year one more was added. Director of Civic Engagement Ashley Farmer-Hanson, who is in charge of AWOL, believes this may have led to a huge increase in applicants. She also believes University Seminar professors helped get the word out as they saw more freshmen apply than usual. AWOL usually turn down around 30% of applicants, which was not the case this year.
“We turned down around 80% of applicants. There was a huge interest in service this year, and I think that says a lot about who we are as a campus community and what students really value and what they want to do with their spring break,” Farmer-Hanson said.
Sophomore criminal justice major and sociology minor Carlee Brown applied, because the trip coincides with her major and minor. She is going on the New York Homelessness and Health trip. It deals with poverty and how it affects people in major cities, and she’s interested to see the effect on crime as well.
“I was extremely excited, because it was a hard trip to get into, and even a harder year to get on an AWOL trip. I was also sad that so many people were turned down. I wish we could just make room for people who want to do service,” Brown said.
Farmer-Hanson says it is exciting to have so many people willing to do service and believes it’s all a learning process.
“Part of AWOL is figuring out if you love it or not or if you like certain aspects or not. Life is about taking chances, and with AWOL, it’s a controlled environment with a group of peers, with friends,” Farmer-Hanson said.
Brown really hopes to get the most out of her experience and is excited that it deals with issues she wants to learn more about, not only for service, but for her own major as well.
“Seeing these issues like homelessness and health in real life is what I’m most excited about. I come from a smaller town, and I haven’t really seen how much of an issue it is. I have mostly only read about it and learned about it. So I’m excited to see it and do my part in helping,” Brown said.
The mystery trips are an intriguing opportunity for students. One has already been announced: the Disaster Relief trip will be headed to Colorado to respond to flooding. The other group may not know their destination until just before Christmas break. Farmer-Hanson believes it’s more fun to keep it a surprise as long as possible. She thinks people want that mystery, and that’s why they signed up.
Senior biology major Tesia Posekany is going on the Children Mystery Trip. Last year, she attended the Children and Poverty trip.
“I know it’s somewhere outside of the United States, because we have to have a passport. I think it’s interesting to see other places in the world, and AWOL is a unique experience. Not only do you get to see those places, but you also get to interact with people there. It’s less of a touristy place, which has its benefits,” Posekany said.
Posekany has gone on two other AWOL trips before this. Her freshman year, she had just started to become involved in service, but her sophomore year, she really jumped in, and applied just to try it. Last year, she went to Haiti and helped rebuild an orphanage. She really enjoyed her experience and had another amazing experience last year.
“You learn a lot about yourself through service, you kind of see what your boundaries are, your strengths are, and some interests you wouldn’t have seen otherwise,” Posekany said.
Instead of having people focus too much on the location, the mystery trips are really designed to help students focus on the service itself.
“The mystery trip is a little more interesting, because everyone is united on the principle of what you’re doing,” Posekany said.
One of the major aspects Brown is nervous about is connecting with people she has only just met. She believes in order to help them out and truly understand what they are going through she’ll have to connect on a meaningful level.
“It’s really hard for me to talk to people openly and have really deep conversations with people that I’ve just met. And that’s one of the big parts of this trip, interacting with the people that we help. And I know I’m going to have to connect with people on a deeper level if I want to get the most out of this trip,” Brown said.
Brown says applying wasn’t too bad but that the questions could be really philosophical, and she had to really think about why she wanted to go on this specific trip instead of just saying that she wanted to do service. She hopes to do more AWOL trips in the future.
Because they have had so many applicants for trips this year, they will be offering a summer trip for the first time. It should be announced in the next couple of weeks. Farmer-Hanson is very excited that this is going to be offered for the first time.
“Students who weren’t selected will have the opportunity to apply first. If there are still open spots, we will open it up to the campus community. It’s something that I have wanted to do for a long time, and this seems like a perfect year to try it,” Farmer-Hanson said.
For now, all AWOL participants have plenty to look forward to as they are preparing for a spring break full of service.
“We have this cool group of students who want to live lives of service,” Farmer-Hanson said.
Graphic by Aaron Burns
