Eleven University of California, Berkeley students through the UC Berkeley Public Service Center’s Alternative Breaks program are spending their academic spring breaks on a service-learning trip now in its eighth year to San Diego. There, the group strives to examine the inequalities of the immigration system and the power behind story-telling through art and community-building. Among other community partners, they will spend time working with the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization “devoted to service, development, and peace programs throughout the world [by valuing the] worth of every person, and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice.” Together with community partners, the group strives to understand the issues that lead to violence and change the systems, situations, and culture that lead to oppression.
Break leaders Consuelo Velasquez and Emmalyn Chen were motivated to lead this trip because of their desire to connect with others and integrate people’s experiences into their own narratives. Chen reflects, “I am not an individual entity. My success and happiness is defined by that of others in my community. By reaching out and connecting with community partners, I am able to integrate their narratives into my own, pooling resources together to touch and inspire.”
This 2013-14 year marks the eighth year of returning to San Diego to work in solidarity with the local community. Velas-quez, who participated in Central Valley trip the year before reflects, “Before participating in Alternative Breaks, I had a hard time connecting to issues because they felt foreign to me. I had a hard time visualizing what “change” looked like.
During our trip, the more I learned about the community we worked with and interacted with people there, the more I connected their experiences to mine. The whole experience grounded me as a student and person because it made me realize change does not happen in studying, reading about, or talking about people’s struggles; long-lasting, transformative change is possible through listening, working, and really connecting with the experiences and struggles of others. I am really excited for our upcoming trip. It will be a new experience, but I am eager to finally meet our community partners and engage in conversations we can integrate into our lives and bring back to our Berkeley community.”
Alternative Breaks at UC Berkeley was founded in 2001 to connect teams of college students to communities facing social injustices and allow them to critically examine these complex issues through direct service, reflection, and community engagement. Most importantly, the program encourages students to take what they have learned from these experiences with various service organizations to engage in social justice work in their own communities at home.