By Natalie Schack, News Correspondent

For many college students, spring break can mean an endless stream of cocktails and a chance to appear in ‘Girls Gone Wild.’
But for students like Ryan Fox, a middler majoring in electrical and computer engineering, and Meredith Pineau, a senior nursing major, spring break has a different connotation, a more community-oriented one.
Together, Pineau and Fox took on the roles of co-coordinators of the Alternative Spring Break program at Northeastern.
Northeastern’s ‘Alternative Spring Break’ program, or ASB, offered through the Center of Community Service, began in 2003, and has grown to include 10 trips, in which more than 100 students participated this year.
The program sends students looking to volunteer to different locations where they spend the week in some type of service capacity, whether it be environmental conservation, rebuilding or repairing houses, volunteering in orphanages or aiding with disaster relief.
Now the program has even expanded internationally to include Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. Domestic locations included Arizona, Mississippi and New Orleans. Before last year, ASB did not offer the chance to volunteer abroad.

This year, Pineau and her team members worked with Grand Canyon Trust, based outside of Flagstaff, Ariz., and Fox, along with other Northeastern students, traveled to Fort Smith, Ark., and worked with Habitat For Humanity.’
As co-coordinators, Fox and Pineau contacted the host sites, arranged bi-weekly meetings and acted as mentors to the program’s participants. They prepared different welcoming activities for the volunteers and aided in the recruitment and training of team leaders and volunteers. They also worked on fundraising by writing a grant that got ASB $2,500 from Liberty Mutual, said Sara De Ritter, associate director of service and community partnerships.
‘Ryan and Meredith are two students that are committed to community. I am constantly impressed by their ability to balance all of their activities and academics while volunteering with the Center of Community Service,’ she said.
Fox said he had done community service all throughout high school, and first participated in ASB his freshman year, with a trip to Fort Smith, Ark., where he and the other group members helped build houses with Habitat for Humanity, an organization that provides affordable housing for those in need.’ The next year he went back to Fort Smith as a team leader, which required that he contact the host site, and act as a liaison between volunteers and administrators at the host site, among other responsibilities.
‘I wanted to do something that has a lasting impact,’ Fox said.
Besides working with ASB, Fox participates in Student Government Association (SGA) and Resident Student Association and is an SGA presidential candidate.
Pineau also began working with ASB her freshman year.
Although that trip, which was scheduled to go to Baltimore, Md. got canceled due to a snowstorm, she went to Biloxi, Miss. during her middler year through a partnership with Hands On Gulf Coast, which works to rebuild post-Katrina New Orleans.
The next year, she too went back to Biloxi as a team leader.
This year, as co-coordinators, they met a new set of challenges.
One of Pineau and Fox’s biggest goals for the program was expansion. They said more student interest means more trips, which means more opportunities to help communities.
Right now, the main way people hear about Alternative Spring Break is through word-of-mouth, Fox and Pineau said.’
‘ ‘A lot of people go into it thinking they’re just going to do service, and they’re surprised at how much fun they have. It’s an awesome time. It’s a good chance for people to give back,’ Fox said. ‘ ‘
The same sentiment drives Pineau, she said.
‘People tell me, ‘I am so dead tired but I’ve never felt so alive or rejuvenated,” she said. ‘It’s a blast ‘- it’s an absolute blast. I love volunteering and learning about other communities and cultures. And I meet the coolest people.’
It’s the memories and the prior accomplishments that keep them coming back, year after year, they said. And in terms of new leadership roles, they managed the responsibilities that staff members like De Ritter held a year ago.’
They also added more trips to the ASB catalog. Especially close to Pineau’s heart was the addition of two new specifically environmental ASB trips, which focused on intense conservation-based service.
‘They never ask for recognition, and the only thing they want from anyone else is a great trip,’ an ASB participant, Heather Faherty, who is a sophomore behavioral neuroscience major, said. ‘Meredith is absolutely in touch with other people’s emotions and state of mind. She deeply cares about what you have to say, which makes talking to her easy.’
As for Fox, it’s his new age insight and ability to stay organized that makes him a success, Flaherty said.
‘Ryan is great at his job because he lives through his iPhone, and is very good at managing details such as meetings and times, and always completes his work on time.’
Both Fox and Pineau said they have high hopes for the future of the program, especially if more students take an interest in it.
‘Meredith and Ryan have set a wonderful example for other students to follow,’ De Ritter said, adding that this year’s program was a success. ‘Houses were framed, walls painted, kids laughed, learned, smiled and trails were restored,’ she said.
The experience will certainly stay with Fox and Pineau, they said.
‘As you see each homeowner move in, you feel it affect you,’ Fox said.
After participating in ASB for three years, Pineau said the memories and experiences stuck with her.
‘You gain so much more coming out of it than you could ever have had going in,’ she said. ‘Be prepared to have the most mind-blowing experience of your life.’