After a decade of traveling to Mexico and New Orleans, students participating in College Nine and College Ten's Alternative Spring Break (ASB) Program stayed home this year and explored our local community. Fifteen students spent the week in Live Oak, with an itinerary that ranged from planting trees at Mesa Verde Garden, to engaging with children from Live Oak Elementary.
For five weeks this winter, students prepared for their spring break service project by listening to Live Oak guest speakers discuss local issues such as food insecurity, affordable housing, and the politics of an unincorporated neighborhood. These students were the first group to enroll in the credit bearing ASB offered under the auspices of the Service-Learning Program at College Nine and College Ten.
Students kicked off the spring break week with a tamale party at the Live Oak Grange, hosted by Elizabeth Schilling, former Live Oak Family Resource Center director. Over tamales, students visited with the activists with whom they would volunteer in the coming days, such as Yolanda Provoste, who leads a parenting and gardening class for Live Oak Spanish-speaking mothers, Mariah Roberts, a local parent and art activist, and Ana Rasmussen, founder of Mesa Verde Gardens.
Throughout the work week, students put their hands to work at the Mesa Verde Community Garden and Chanticleer park, shared lunch with families at the Live Oak Family Resource Center, recycled with the Grey Bears, engaged with children at Live Oak Elementary School, and participated in a beach cleanup. Students learned not only about Live Oak, but also about the practice of reflection and analysis of issues close to home.
UCSC students needn't travel too far to find evidence of need or to experience the positive effects of community activism. A much more affordable ASB can happen right here in our own backyard and yield very meaningful results with the possibility of continuous involvement on the part of the students.
