More than a dozen New Hampshire colleges are offering students a chance to work on community service projects - building homes or nature trails or working for poverty relief agencies. Over the next month, New Hampshire students will travel to rural and urban areas all over the country to help improve people's lives. Lamarre helped start the alternative break program at the campus. Saint Anselm College, which started its Spring Break Alternative program in 1991, also offers international trips. So does Dartmouth College, and the University of New Hampshire hopes to add international trips next year.
Students organize the trips themselves and raise funds all year to cover the costs.
Danielle Alderman, a senior at Saint Anselm, is leading a group next month to Costa Rica to work with a local children's relief agency. She says it is an opportunity to live out her faith. Alderman, who has gone on trips to the Appalachian region the past two years, said the experiences changed her perspective. I see where I am blessed. This year about 150 Saint Anselm students are participating in nine trips, including projects in Costa Rica and Peru.