Spartan Transfer Hub | Alternative Spartan Breaks

In this episode of the Spartan Transfer Hub podcast, we discussed the transformative experiences offered by Alternative Spartan Breaks (ASB) at Michigan State University. The conversation highlights the mission of ASB, the challenges faced by students during their immersive service trips, and the profound impact these experiences have on both the students and the communities they serve. The guests share insights on how to get involved, upcoming opportunities, and the personal growth that comes from stepping out of comfort zones and engaging with diverse communities.

Creators and Guests

Host

Siddhi Choubey

Siddhi Choubey is the current Host, Producer, Editor, Composer, and Designer of Spartan Transfer Hub.

What is Spartan Transfer Hub ?

Spartan Transfer Hub is a podcast for transfer students at Michigan State University, and beyond, brought to you by the Transfer Student Success Center (TSSC).

Each episode features conversations with MSU staff, faculty, and fellow students, highlighting key resources, programs, tips and individual stories to help you navigate your transfer journey. From academic support to campus involvement, Spartan Transfer Hub connects you to the tools and people that make a difference.

Find us on Impact89fm.org, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more!
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/msutransfersuccess
Website: https://spartantransferhub.transistor.fm

Siddhi: 00:01

You're listening to the Spartan Transfer Hub brought to you by MSU Transfer Student Success Center and Impact eighty FM. Here's what we've got for you today. Welcome to season three of the Spartan Transfer Hub podcast brought to you by Impact eighty nine FM and the MSU Transfer Student Success Center. I'm your host, Siti Chawbeh, a senior studying journalism and communication. This season, we're highlighting ways transfer students can connect, grow, and make most of their time at MSU.

Siddhi: 00:30

Today, we're talking about something really exciting: Alternative Spartan Breaks. These are immersive, service focused experiences where MSU students challenge themselves, connect with communities, and grow as leaders. Today, I'm joined by some amazing folks. Thank you so much for being here. Let's start with introductions.

Siddhi: 00:51

My name

Catherine: 00:51

is Katherine Anger. I am an a 2024 graduate of MSU and an alternative Spartan Brakes alum, and I currently work as the communications coordinator in the Center for Community Engaged Learning.

Mercedes: 01:03

I'm Mercedes Rochelle. I'm a fifth year human biology student on the pre physician assistant track. I'm currently on the ASBE board. I am the co vice president of education for week long trips. So I'm super excited to be here as well.

Mercedes: 01:20

Mhmm.

Siddhi: 01:21

Thank you. So just to kick things off, I have an icebreaker question. If you could lead an ASB anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

Catherine: 01:34

That's a good It was a good question. I I've heard so much about like all of the different experiences that students have gone on just from like interviewing them for like our communications and such. And I would say if I didn't pick my own, was to Kansas City and I had a great time connecting with the community there when I went on my experience, I would also say there was one a couple years ago, or no, it was last year that did river cleanup in the Mississippi River. And I think that would be very fun to do, especially doing an experience that's just all around nature. Or the the we've been going to Costa Rica for like ten years and like also that's also very nature centric.

Catherine: 02:12

So I think that would be very interesting. Listen.

Mercedes: 02:14

Yes. I was also going to say Costa Rica. Like, I have been hearing such amazing things about that trip. People were able to like hike in the mountains and really interact with the community there and learn so much about the culture. So that's the one I would definitely like to go on for sure.

Mercedes: 02:31

That's amazing. Okay. So let's get started. Can you tell me about ASB? Alternatives Spartan Breaks is a community service organization.

Mercedes: 02:43

It's very similar to a nonprofit in that we're we're basically running one. We work really closely with our director, Tina, and we're a group of students. It's basically like an RSO. We go a lot of places around the country and internationally For weekend trips, we tend to go in Michigan about in a one to three hour radius. And then on those week long trips, we go anywhere around around the country and internationally.

Mercedes: 03:11

But we do not reveal the location to people because we want them to truly immerse themselves in the social issues at hand. A big part of our organization is the 17 UN goals, which we broadcast to people and we organize the trips based on those particular social issues so people can choose a trip based on what they're truly passionate about rather than just the location. And it really gives us the opportunity to truly serve a community partner and assist in their needs rather than coming in and feeling like we know exactly where to help them.

Siddhi: 03:44

What goes behind this process? Like, what is the comms process like? What is the planning process like?

Catherine: 03:51

I was not an e board member, but definitely you had a great kind of communications, like, core around it that I heard about it when I was a student. So,

Mercedes: 04:01

Yes. You're right. There's so many moving parts all the time. Like like I said, we're basically running a nonprofit. Tina, the director, we have e board meetings with her every week as an entire e board.

Mercedes: 04:14

And then we also individually as teams have separate office hours with her where we go into, like, the nitty gritty of all the details. So for example, like, I do education. So I work on a lot of the plannings for education, team leader interviews, team leader trainings, and a lot goes in a lot of planning and goes into that, especially like going out to Spartan Swans here for example. And picking out all those times for people to meet with you as well as, like, all the teams. Like, sometimes I don't even know what goes on in the other teams just because there's so many, like, moving parts in there.

Mercedes: 04:51

But at the e board meeting, we all discuss those moving parts. We talk together through big decisions. And it's a really, like, immersive, honestly complicated process at first. But there there's always something that you just didn't think about before, and then you have to plan out all those little details. Yeah.

Catherine: 05:10

What about specifically with the education aspect of it? Like, that's your role on the eboard if you wanna

Mercedes: 05:16

Yeah. Talk about that. So with education, I work with Kylie. She's the co vice president of education. She does weekends.

Mercedes: 05:24

And this is something new we're trying this year. I'm in charge of week longs because a lot goes into it. I have to do separate trainings for them, which is like three trainings. And I have to really think through the process of, k, like, what information do I wanna give them in the first training that's really gonna set them up for success as a team leader? And also be able to expose them to different scenarios that they may feel like they would never encounter, but they they might on a trip.

Mercedes: 05:52

Especially like working with them through communications with their participants, how they're going to lead them and really allow them all to have an immersive experience. One thing I have to teach is reflection, which is a big part of Alternative Sprint breaks. It really helps us get the most out of the experience. And by teaching that to team leaders, hopefully, they'll be able to have the tools they need to reflect with their participants so that everybody is really fully immersing themselves in the environment and understands what's going on. So what I know is that many students join ASB to step out of

Siddhi: 06:30

their comfort zones. What kinds of challenges or unique experience do students usually encounter during these trips?

Catherine: 06:36

I think for me at least, with with my experience at least, just one of kind of the main things that we teach in the Center for Community Engaged Learning through all of our programs, ASB included, is that really like remembering that like you don't know everything. And going into your community engagement experience with an open mind, being like open to learning more about the community. And I think that's actually like the beauty and the challenge of ASB a little bit is extended completely because you're just going to a completely different place. Especially like in the case of spring breaks, you're going across the country to a kind of, to a community that you're really not familiar with. And serving there and learning the needs of the people there and learning how you can collaborate with them there.

Catherine: 07:32

So I think with that and also with students who like we do get a lot of out of state students at MSU, but we also get a lot of in state students at MSU. Definitely being kind of like out in a completely new place with all these people. Like you do have your team there to support you and like be there with you and go through this experience with you. But it is like it is quite like quite a ways physically out of a lot of people's comfort zones. It's what I will say.

Catherine: 08:08

And having the opportunity to volunteer in that space and learn more from that space is just like, it's high challenge for yourself but high reward, I will say. It's how I'll put it. Yes. Yes.

Mercedes: 08:21

I think you read that perfectly. Yeah.

Siddhi: 08:24

Was there something that, like, specifically in your experience, was there something that you thought, like, you took away that you weren't expecting at all?

Catherine: 08:33

Well, in one case, definitely with the living and working and reflecting with the team aspect. Living and working and with rep and reflecting with other people, that's already an experience that's very much a part of college. Doing that consistently with that many people, especially some of these teams can be pretty large living all in pretty close quarters as you're trying to like go out and do this experience. And it's just the focus on doing the volunteer experience. So having that, that was an informative like, okay, we can work together and live together as a team.

Catherine: 09:12

And it's kind of, it's almost a summer camp experience a little bit, I would say. But from the actual volunteering standpoint from where we were working in Kansas City when I went, how many great organizations there are are out there doing so much great work. The place that we were working, it's like right in the middle of the city and has so many different program. It's kind of a one stop shop for the community members that it serves. There's educational programs.

Catherine: 09:44

There's like on top of those education programs, there's a lot more like trade specific programs for older students. There's food pantries, clothing closets, after school programs. There's even like they mentioned there was something with like, people need help with like hair care or hygiene or something because they're like going through a rough patch, then they're able to help with that as well. And I didn't even realize a place like that existed. And it's a large facility and it was very eye opening to like how many organizations there are out there doing this great work.

Catherine: 10:21

And then just seeing the joy that all of the volunteers that we met there that were used to that, that were doing that work a lot. But how much joy and energy they were really putting into it was very eye opening. So

Siddhi: 10:38

That's amazing. How do ASB experiences impact both the students and the communities that they serve?

Mercedes: 10:45

I would say that the experiences really give the students a chance to, like you said, go completely out of their comfort zone and not only learn about the community and what like, the resources out there and how they could possibly contribute to that community in the future or the community at home, but also the community is able to fully, like, reach out and be like, we need help in these particular areas. Can you help us? And we can give their our full attention to them, especially on those spring break trips. We're there for eight hours. So we're fully dedicating all of that time to them and whatever they need.

Mercedes: 11:24

And I think community partners probably feel less alone in everything that they have to do, and they feel very supported by people who who are in their community, but also people who are outside of their community. And going back to, like, students, I feel that it's just like, it that has made me grown in no other ways that I think any other experience could have made me grow. Like, it completely pushed me out of my comfort zone physically, like you mentioned earlier, and socially. And also, it gave the students an opportunity to really interact with community partners and have those one on one talks with them and understand what the mission is of that particular community, which I feel like a lot of communities don't get the opportunity to truly share their mission and have people understand. So I I feel like that's a very unique component and relationship.

Mercedes: 12:20

And sometimes that extends to outside of ASB. Some people come back to be interns. Some people come back to work there full time. And I know there's some stories where it it inspired students to go on and I believe they went into the AmeriCorps or the Peace Corps, which is like amazing. And so, yeah, it's just very eye opening experience overall.

Siddhi: 12:44

Awesome. What is the process like? And what is the easiest way to get involved or get connected to ASB?

Mercedes: 12:52

I think following our Instagram. Our Instagram is super interactive. We're always posting on there as our email list as well. We always are sending out information on that and our website has so many resources as well. You can apply on there.

Mercedes: 13:09

There's lots of tabs to also apply for scholarships. So if a student feels like they will not be able to afford the trip, they can a 100% apply for a scholarship and possibly be able to go on that trip because we want to make it accessible to everybody. Mhmm.

Catherine: 13:28

If you're already following the Center for Community Engaged Learning communication channels, we also share a lot about ASB experiences through those as well. So yeah.

Siddhi: 13:38

Can you discuss some of the opportunities that are coming up? Because I know that the location isn't necessarily, like, this closed like you said, but can we get a little bit of, like, a sneak peek of what's coming?

Catherine: 13:48

And there's a lot of spring

Mercedes: 13:49

break trips coming up. A lot of spring break trips coming up. I believe Kansas City is a go Yeah. Which I also want on that one and it's amazing. It's a really good one.

Siddhi: 14:19

When did the trip start?

Catherine: 14:21

That will be March 1?

Mercedes: 14:23

March 1. March 1. Yeah.

Catherine: 14:25

Okay. Yes. So March. Just kind of that week through the spring break week. Okay.

Catherine: 14:32

Okay.

Mercedes: 14:33

So the trips that we're sending out, we're sending out nine trips. We have a lot around zero hunger, good health and well-being, reduced inequalities. We have some that are focusing on quality education. We have so many choices, and they are all on our website along with the UN goals that they pertain to. So people should definitely check that out and see what they're most passionate about and choose based on that.

Mercedes: 15:02

There's descriptions for each experience and what to kind of expect as you apply, but they are they are amazing and each one of them have just a a very unique location and community partner,

Siddhi: 15:18

which makes it super exciting. Yeah. Awesome. Is there anything else that you wish to add that I haven't asked yet?

Mercedes: 15:25

Mhmm. Yeah. I think I have something. I had my first leadership experience with Alternative Spring Breaks. And I feel that if people are looking for leadership opportunities or just looking to put themselves out there, I feel that this is an amazing opportunity to take those first steps and truly learn what it means to be a leader and how to lead a group and also interact with a community partner.

Mercedes: 15:52

It's a really great it's great networking and great skills that you will learn and that you will take into every single leadership position moving forward. So I would say, like, put yourself out there, and this is a great chance to just honestly be uncomfortable for a little while, and that will produce the most growth. And it's always the most rewarding as you were saying.

Catherine: 16:17

You know? Just that to really, like, as you're there, even as you're volunteering, treat the task that you're doing as a part of just taking it all in as you're in a new space. Because that really you'll think about it a lot in the future, and it'll enrich your your reflections a lot, I would say.

Siddhi: 16:36

Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us today and for all the work that you do to make ASB experiences meaningful for MSU students. And to our transfer Spartans listening, remember, these experiences are your chance to grow, connect, and make an impact. So if you're looking for adventure, leadership, or community service, ASB is waiting for you.

Siddhi: 16:58

If you enjoyed this episode, you can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or the Impact eighty nine FM website. Until next time, keep showing up, keep growing, and keep making MSU your home. Go Green. Go White. Thanks for tuning in to the Spartan Transfer Hub brought to you by Impact89FM and the Transfer Student Success Center.

Siddhi: 17:19

See you next time.