Announcing the Middlebury Alternative Break (MAlt) Service Trips for February Break 2014!
The application—please read directions carefully!—is due by Thursday, October 10th online (the application deadline has now passed).
Each participant’s trip is heavily subsidized by the MAlt organization budget and donors to create an affordable opportunity for students to have an immersive service experience over break. MAlt is a perfect opportunity to get involved with rewarding and meaningful service work during break as well as a great way to connect to a new community!
Questions? Please read this “Intro to MAlt 2013-2014”, or e-mail MAlt tri-chairs Charlotte Zelle, Rod Abhari, and Ali Lewis at middalt@middlebury.edu.
Trip Descriptions:
Grow the growers: Food justice and community empowerment in New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
Through our week with Our School at Blair Grocery, a sustainability education and community center that functions as an urban farm, we will examine food systems in New Orleans and learn about the educational and employment opportunities that campaigns to end hunger provide. We’ll learn about topics ranging from composting to structural inequality while engaging with a totally new and urban environment. We hope that by the end of our trip, participants will have a new appreciation for the centrality of healthy food to community development, for the importance of youth empowerment, and for green gardens.
Leaders: Ellery Berk and Emily Benson
Participant Fee: $250
Malt Haiti: Exploring Different Community Development Models in Post-2010 Haiti
Ansapit, Haiti
We are partnering with AMURTEL – Haiti to explore how three NGOs based in Ansapit are all converging to bring about sustained development. Our main partner will be AMURTEL, an organization whose work in Ansapit has been centered around education and child development. The trip will have a balance between hands-on service activities and educational sessions from community leaders in Ansapit. Thus, expect to be involved in Creole lessons and discussions about the history of Haiti, as well as hot days out in the field helping with permaculture projects.
Leaders: Prestige Mzwakithi and Andres Chamorro
Participant Fee: $300
Exploring Energy: Collecting stories from natural gas production in Bradford Co., PA
Bradford County, Pennsylvania
The purpose of our trip is to explore perspectives around natural gas extraction, and to collect stories from landowners and gas field workers to share with the broader community. We will to develop nuanced and personal understandings of what natural gas development has looked like in Bradford County. We will work with the Pennsylvania Landowner Group for Awareness and Solutions, which intended to collect such stories but has not yet had the capacity to do so.
Leaders: Teddy Smyth and Jeannie Bartlett
Participant Fee: $250
Midd Pals: Brings Dreams Closer to Reality
Society Hill, South Carolina
Midd Pals seeks to continue to build on the relationships between current Middlebury College students and our partnership with Rosenwald Elementary/ Middle School in Society Hill, South Carolina. On this trip participants will attend Rosenwald Elementary/Middle School for a week, forming meaningful relationships with the students by way of mentorship. We will be present in the classroom, run after-school workshops that deal with both social and academics issues facing the students, and be members of a panel that will allow members of the Society Hill community (parents and students alike) to get to know us on a more personal level. We hope you come and join our trip!
Leaders: Missan DeSouza and Osaze Riley
Participant Fee: $250
Girls Rising : Celebrating Sustainable Strategies for Development in the DR
Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic
On February 8th, 2014, the Mariposa Foundation will inaugurate an innovative center that will inspire sustainable solutions to end generational poverty. Over the course of the week, we aim to become educated about how non-profits work on a day-to-day basis, to support the Mariposa Foundation as they open their new center, and to act as positive role models for the girls that the Mariposa Foundation serves. Join us in serving others as we explore gender, generational poverty, and the girls that are rising.
Leaders: Maddie Orcutt and Angie Walker
Participant Fee $300
Living for the Future: Intentional Communities in New England
Shuttesbury, Massachusetts
All across the country, socially-conscious individuals are coming together to live in Intentional Communities with people who share a vision of social justice. What kind of impact do Intentional Communities have on the world around them? To explore this question, we will immerse ourselves in the Sirius Community, a faith-based eco-village in Shuttesbury, Massachussets. As temporary members, we will be have the opportunity to work on various community projects, attend sustainable living modules and meditation workshops, and interact with the community members. Participants can expect to walk away from this trip with a better understanding of their role in the communities they occupy, and the role of communities in the greater society.
Leaders: Rod Abhari and Blake Anderson
Participant Fee: $150