Rice community to spend spring break serving others
One group to work with hospitals and health care organizations in Houston

BY JESSICA STARK
Rice News staff

Nearly 200 Rice University students will leave campus this weekend to offer community service to 15 cities throughout the U.S. Feb. 26 through March 6. The 192 students and nine faculty and staff members will spend their spring break helping others through activities such as building houses for Habitat for Humanity, mentoring young students and working with mentally and physically disabled youths and adults.

	JEFF FITLOW
	In previous years, volunteers worked at Medical Bridges of Houston to redistribute surplus medical supplies to health care providers in less-developed countries.

For the first time, Houston will be one of the alternative spring break service sites. The group will work with a variety of agencies focusing on health and access to health care. Every morning the group will work with a community hospital of the Harris County Hospital District that serves the public and uninsured persons, and every afternoon they’ll perform work for local service organizations, including Bering Omega and Medical Bridges.

The main project for the group, dubbed “Houston Got Us Fallin’ in Love,” will include working one-on-one with pediatric patients to create small art projects and then combining those projects into a collage display or designing a wall mural. The volunteers will also help patients become aware of and enroll in health insurance programs. To fully immerse themselves in the community they’re serving, the group will stay at Christ Church Cathedral downtown.

The Rice alternative spring breakers who are going out of town will perform short-term projects in partnership with community agencies and learn about issues such as literacy, poverty, racism, hunger, homelessness, immigration and the environment at sites ranging from Eagle Butte, S.D., to Oakhurst, N.J., to San Diego, Calif.

Sponsored by and organized through Rice’s Community Involvement Center, the alternative spring break program aims to involve college students in community-based service projects and give them opportunities to learn about the problems faced by members of communities with whom they otherwise may have little or no direct contact. The Houston alternative spring break also received funding through the Hispanic Association for Cultural Enrichment at Rice.

To learn more about the programs and service sites, visit http://cic.rice.edu/asb/.