The Office of Student Engagement is looking for UB faculty and staff to serve as advisers for UB’s Alternative Break community service trips.

Advisors will travel with students on one of the five trips Student Engagement is coordinating in the coming academic year.

The main role of advisers is to help ensure the overall safety of trip participants, work with Student Engagement to prepare for the trip, deepen the learning experience of student volunteers, and support and challenge the student trip leaders to grow in their leadership skills.

The criteria for the job: “Our team is looking for interested staff who exhibit qualities such as positivity, resilience, flexibility and a passion for student development,” says Rachel DiDomizio, community engagement coordinator in the Office of Student Engagement.

UB staff members who have served as advisers on previous trips have called the experience “life-changing” and “impactful.” See related UBNow story.

This year’s trips:

Ready…Set…Buffalo! (Aug 17-22)

Ready…Set…Buffalo! is a summer service experience designed specifically for incoming UB students that will help participants learn about the UB campus and Buffalo community, all while meeting new people, giving back and jumpstarting their college experience. The program will offer opportunities to perform community service with a variety of local agencies, meet UB staff and get an early taste of all that Buffalo has to offer.

Alternative Winter Break: Environmental Sustainability in the Louisiana Wetlands (Jan 19-25)

Participants of this trip will travel to the Louisiana wetlands to discover the beauty of the bayou and the rich and vibrant culture of those that call it home. The group will learn about the cultural and ecological history of southern Louisiana and complete community service projects that will increase the long-term sustainability of this important region.

Alternative Spring Break: Give Where You Live in Buffalo (March 16-20)

While staying in Buffalo, students participating in this trip will explore a variety of social issues affecting the Buffalo area. Students will volunteer with various community organizations and get a broader sense of the city.

Alternative Spring Break: Civic Engagement in Washington, D.C. (March 15-21)

Empowering students with a lifelong commitment to civic engagement is one way that UB can positively change the world. Participants of this trip will perform community service, explore a variety of historic, cultural and political sites in D.C., and learn more about how to be a more civically engaged member of their community. 

Alternative Spring Break: Educational Programs in the Dominican Republic (March 14-21)

Working with Outreach360, students will help teach English to the kids in Santiago, Dominican Republic. Students will live out Outreach 360’s vision — to transform the world in which every child is able to pursue a college degree or to be gainfully employed upon reaching adulthood, enabling them to live a life of choice — while learning about the history of the Dominican Republic, exploring the culture and discuss what it really means to “make change” happen in a community.

For more information about the program, contact DiDomizio at racheld@buffalo.edu or 645-8531.

Those interested in Ready…Set…Buffalo! should email DiDomizio as soon as possible, as that program takes place next month.

The deadline to submit interest for the winter or spring trips is Sept. 1.