UNC classes and organizations offer alternative spring breaks

Spring break is in less than a week and UNC is offering several programs to offer an insightful spring break, whether abroad or in the area. 

UNC provides alternative spring break programs, such as the Hurricane Helene Relief Trip from UNC Wesley Campus Ministry.

Hussman School of Journalism and Media has a few classes that provide students opportunities to go abroad for spring break. Media and Journalism 447: Media in the U.K. and Media and Journalism 584: International Projects are two of the classes. 

This spring, Media and Journalism 584 is heading to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to finish a semester-long project by gathering information and connecting with local people from the area to work on their stories. Brooke Bond, adjunct instructor of Media and Journalism 584, said that the class is focused on giving students real life experience creating a multimedia package — a longer form of journalism. 

Media and Journalism 584 requires an application that opens in the fall semester. The class is targeted to students who are intermediate to advanced in the field of journalism. This year, the class is taking 27 students to Buenos Aires. 

Prior to the spring break trip, students take time to gather story elements and connect with people they can potentially interview while in Buenos Aires. Media and Journalism 584 is partnering with a university in Buenos Aires — Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina — to work with journalism students from the area and give insights into the local community. 

“I think the main thing that I got out of it was that collaborative piece that I was talking about, how to work with people who have different roles than you and making that work all together in order to create a single project at the end,” Bond said.

Coming back from Buenos Aires will lead to a month of students creating their final product, which will be published in April at the end of the semester. The public website will be open for everyone. 

This trip will be an opportunity for students to work in an environment similar to how they would work in the field, as well as developing their collaborative skills to work with people with different specialties. 

Bond graduated from UNC in 2019 and went to Medellin, Colombia through this class. 

“Not everybody can either have the time and or afford to go to a different country for an entire semester — it is expensive and it is a lot of working it into your schedule,” Hailey Clodfelter, a graduate student in Hussman that is part of Media and Journalism 584, said. “But I think trips like this are super helpful because you still have the abroad experience.” 

Another program that is offered in UNC is hosted by APPLES Service-Learning. APPLES is a student-led program that focuses on sustainable partnerships and promoting service. The trip is also an application-based trip, consisting of short answer questions and interviews. 

APPLES is going to two different locations this year — Asheville and Charlotte. Each trip covers a different theme. Charlotte will focus on urban communities, relating to violence prevention, poverty in urban areas and legislation related topics. Asheville, strongly affected by Hurricane Helene, will be focusing on disaster relief. In the past, the Asheville trip has focused on arts in public service. 

APPLES programs are partnering with local organizations to volunteer and educate students about sustainable partnerships, APPLES' main objective. 

“I think as a freshman coming into UNC and not knowing much about the different opportunities it has, I think APPLES was really meaningful to me,” Medha Thummala, the APPLES alternative spring break co-chair, said. “I had the opportunity to go with a good group of people to a community and serve with them.”

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