Why You Should Go On a Service Trip

Plenty of students use college as a time to drop what they’re doing and travel. Some take trips with friends, some go on cruises, and some study abroad. Another option for students looking to travel is a service trip, either in the States or abroad. Basically, you spend a week helping others while you travel. FSU Center for Leadership and Social Change offers Alternative Spring Break trips to destinations around the country, with past trips to places like Indianapolis and Los Angeles. Churches and other religious organizations frequently take groups on mission trips as well. The Wesley Foundation at FSU & TCC, for example, takes students internationally to Haiti, Guatemala, and Nicaragua over spring break and in the summer and to New Orleans over winter break.

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Service trips offer a unique opportunity for travelers. First, you get to travel somewhere new. While the average vacation involves tourist traps and sightseeing, service trips show you a different side of the place you visit. You get to see how people really live in that part of the country or world. On a spring break service trip to New Orleans, I got to see the French Quarter and the world-famous Bourbon Street, but I also got to see firsthand how devastated parts of the city still are from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Plus, the locals you work with usually have some really good suggestions for restaurants and interesting sites you might otherwise miss.

One of the perks of going on a service trip is that they often take you to unusual places you might not otherwise get to visit. Lots of people spend their spring breaks partying in Mexico or on Panama City Beach, but service trips can take you to great, alternative destinations that won’t be full of crazy partiers. Past FSU Alternative Spring Break trips have taken students to a non-profit children’s hospital in Memphis, an HIV & AIDS center in Los Angeles, and a sustainable hunger relief ranch in Arkansas.

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You also become friends with people you might never have met if not for the trip. Many students sign up for service trips by themselves, or with one other friend. Working with people in a new place quickly turns a group of strangers into the best of friends. Most people who go on service trips as college students are also usually like-minded people, so the friendships are easy to maintain even after the trip is over.

Probably the best and most rewarding part of going on a service trip is that you get to spend your time helping someone else. A week building a house for someone whose home was destroyed in a natural disaster, or spending time with kids with terminal illnesses will change your outlook, your perspective, your heart, and maybe your entire life. Service trips give you the chance to get to know and help people who are vastly different from yourself.

Service trips give students the chance to spend their breaks traveling the world and making new friends while helping others.