UTSA students spend their break giving back to the community

"Our students are always looking for service opportunities, and Alternative Break gives them an extra push to be engaged and active in other communities outside San Antonio," said Chantea Swinson-Rhoe, the center's director. "It really helps them see that social issues are always broader than their own communities."

The program was started in 1994 by the student group Volunteer Organization Involving Community, Education and Service (VOICES), with 20 students traveling to Reynosa, Mexico.

From Huntsville to Puerto Rico, student volunteers have traveled far to give back to communities while focusing on important issues such as environmental restoration, immigration, child abuse and animal rescue.

This trip to Corpus aligned with Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, which began on Sunday, November 17, and concluded on Saturday, November 23.

For Valeria Castro, a member of VOICES and first-time participant in the Alternative Break program, the part of the trip that really "touched her heart" was working with Tacos not Bombs, a nonprofit that feeds the hungry every Sunday at a local city park. A sophomore, Castro is double majoring in neuroscience and biochemistry.