PHOTO COURTESY OF BLAZERS ON BREAK

A Blast from the past: Blazers' past spring break trips

Juhee Agrawal
Contributing Reporter
jagrawal@uab.edu

Blazers on Break

Blazers on Break is a free program that allows students to spend their spring break engaged in service at various locations around the US.

Mary Ann Jimenez, junior in public health, went to Memphis, TN during the spring break of her freshman year.

“We went to lower socioeconomic neighborhoods with high crime rates, and a lot of (break-ins),” Jimenez said. “We put boards on the doors and windows to add more security in the neighborhood.”

Jimenez said the volunteers asked the community members what they wanted to see and painted the wooden boards.

Jimenez said she wanted to go on this trip to have a more hands-on spring break experience.

“Being in GCL (the Global and Community Leaders Honors Program), I wanted more experience in social justice and civic engagement,” Jimenez said.

Jimenez said through this trip, she has connected with students at UAB and at other universities, and she has learned the importance of community feedback in volunteering.

“I actually made one of my best friends from there, and made friends from other universities,” Jimenez said. “It pushed me out of my comfort zone by talking to strangers.”

Jimenez said this trip fosters a community within UAB.

“We learn about ways we can actually implement what we learn in Birmingham,” Jimenez said.

Outdoor Pursuits Spring Break Trip 

Payton Joyner, Assistant Director of Fitness and Wellbeing at UAB University Recreation, oversees the Outdoor Pursuits program. Outdoor Pursuits typically offers a spring break trip to students each year.

Joyner said the trip is to the Grand Canyon this year. In the past, students have gone to the Appalachian Trail, Zion and Arches National Parks for this spring break trip.

“Typically, it’s around ten students for the bigger trips” Joyner said.

Joyner said he recommends going because of the benefits of getting outdoors.

“Traditional spring break trips can often lead to more stressful situations that may have more of an impact on your future opportunities,” Joyner said. “Our trips are trying to focus on getting people out and away from their phones, their emails, their schoolwork, so they can really get a break to relax.”

Trips like these offer people the opportunity to connect with the world around them and disconnect from societal pressures, Joyner said.

“If you can’t go on the trip with us, we have all of our rental equipment that you can get, everything you would need to go on a trip of your own,” Joyner said.

Joyner said that Outdoor Pursuits is happy to help students with planning if they are ever wanting to take their own trips.

Honors College abroad trip to Ecuador with Mary Wallace

Gracie Landram, sophomore in public health, is currently taking HB 395, an Honors College seminar that was planning to take a spring break trip to Ecuador.

The trip has now been cancelled due to coronavirus-related travel restrictions.

“We were going to fly into Quito, then go to an indigenous community in the Cloud Forests,” Landram said. “They have a whole community life there, and we were going to work with a sustainability garden and with reforestation efforts.”

Landram wanted to take this course because of her passions for sustainability and environmental health.

“I wanted to do something meaningful with my spring break and I really love to travel, but doing it for a good purpose, and for a nicer price than a cruise or tourist vacation,” Landram said.

The course, taught by Mary Wallace, PhD, meets once a week to learn about adaptive leadership.

“That is leadership and implementation of ideas in messy situations where there’s no clear-cut solution,” Landram said.

Landram said she would recommend courses like this because students get to receive course credit, meet new people, travel and learn about culture, which is not typical for most classes.