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August 2007
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CAMPUS NEWS |
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Taking a Break for Social Justice
When you grab a cup of coffee on campus in a few years, you may be sipping a brew that began with AU students toiling under the Guatemalan sun. Over the summer, students planted coffee bushes at a farmer’s cooperative in Guatemala that grows coffee for export to clients that include Pura Vida, the fair-trade company that supplies coffee to AU’s cafeterias. It was part of an alternative summer break, one of several social justice trips this summer. Another group went to South Africa, traveling to cities and townships to focus on women’s empowerment after apartheid and on the country’s AIDS crisis. This month, other students will fly into the Amazon on five-seat propeller planes to spend a week with an indigenous group in Ecuador opposed to oil drilling. AU’s alternative breaks, which are planned for winter, spring, and summer vacations, are coordinated and led in large part by students like Rachel and Sarah Beistel ’09. The twins share both a birth and a commitment to social justice. “AU has this kind of mantra—‘ideas into action, action into service’—and that really fits us,” says Rachel. “My sister and I have done community service our whole lives.” The School of Public Affairs students from Pittsburgh signed on as freshmen for an alternative break to Guatemala and, two years later, applied to lead a trip themselves. The trip emphasized economics, from fair trade to eco-tourism, and included several days of working with farmers to clear land, haul firewood, carry bananas, and experience the sort of labor that is the daily lot of many of the world’s people. Janyelle Thomas ’07 co-led the trip to South Africa. “Because I’m African-American, and I was the first person on both sides of my family to actually make it back to the continent, there was a lot that was very personal,” says the sociology major from Oklahoma City. “Things are either gorgeous and beautiful, or really saddening and heartbreaking. There’s not a lot in between.” Educational elements are integrated into the trips in a conscious way. In daily meetings for debriefing and reflecting, the student leaders and faculty or staff member on the trip ask questions and encourage discussion on the wider issues, such as trade, economics, and gender issues. Student co-leaders plan the alternative breaks with the guidance of Shoshanna Sumka, coordinator of global and community-based learning, and travel with a faculty-staff adviser. The initial idea for each globe-spanning trip, as well as contacts on the ground in the country, often come from an AU staff or faculty member who has lived or worked in the region. The coffee bushes that the Beistels and other students planted will take about five years to mature. Then the beans will make their way to the U.S., and maybe even the mugs of future AU students—who could end up sipping the fair-trade brew in 2012 as they plan their own alternative trips for social justice. -Sally Acharya, originally published in American Weekly | |||
