Exploring Pathways to Social Change
UMBC students use their Spring Break to deconstruct their ideas on service and learn more about the community of Baltimore. Continue Reading Exploring Pathways to Social Change
alternative spring break
Meet the Donor: Kirsten Brinlee
As we send this year’s group of Alternative Spring Breakers off on their service learning trips, we thought we’d take the time to spotlight one of the wonderful people who donated to ASB. Kirsten Brinlee, program manager for the Baltimore Collegetown Network and friend of UMBC, tells us about how she decided to give, and why the cause is so close to her heart. What is your relationship to UMBC, and how did you become involved with us? When I first moved to Maryland in 2012, I was working for Johns Hopkins University in service-learning, and one of my job responsibilities… Continue Reading Meet the Donor: Kirsten Brinlee
Alternative Spring Break: The ARC of Carroll County
As we wrap up our spotlight on Alternative Spring Break, we’d like to talk about another trip that impacts our Maryland community. The ARC of Carroll County serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout their local area, providing resources for employment, education, transportation, and community living.On this ASB trip, students will have the chance to work directly with the people the ARC supports, building bonds and breaking down stereotypes about disability. Your gift will go towards supplies, food, lodging, and transportation for 12 students who are bound to remember this trip for the rest of their lives.To donate to the… Continue Reading Alternative Spring Break: The ARC of Carroll County
Alternative Spring Break: Public Health
This week, we’ve been focusing on UMBC’s Alternative Spring Break trips, which give students the chance to go out into the world, make a difference, and learn more about issues affecting society on their week off in March. Today, we’re shining a light on the Public Health trip. Through this service-learning opportunity, students will learn about the Maryland through hands-on service projects in free clinics and health-focused nonprofit organizations throughout the city of Baltimore. This year’s trip, in particular, will focus on the issues of childhood obesity and food deserts in Baltimore. As with the other trips we’ve featured this week,… Continue Reading Alternative Spring Break: Public Health
Alternative Spring Break: Homelessness in Baltimore
Here on the giving blog, we’ve been giving you an look at UMBC’s Alternative Spring Break programs, which give students a chance to participate in a service learning project over the March holiday. This next trip takes students right into the city of Baltimore, where, over the course of one year, at least 30,000 people will experience homelessness at one point. Over their spring break, students will work on various projects throughout the city, and learn about how its homelessness problem intersects with poverty, crime, and other issues facing Baltimore. Your gift will go towards supplies, lodging, food, and transportation… Continue Reading Alternative Spring Break: Homelessness in Baltimore
Alternative Spring Break 2016: Gesundheit! Institute
As we near the end of the calendar year, we’d like to remind our community of the many places their gifts might go this holiday season. This week, we’ll be focusing on next year’s Alternative Spring Break trips. These provide a wonderful opportunity for students to spend their week off doing good for the communities and gaining a new understanding of the world. One of these trips will take students to Patch Adams’ Gesundheit! Institute. They’ll interact with patients, help maintain the grounds, and learn about Adams’ humanistic model of health care and the Institute’s approach to social justice. In past years… Continue Reading Alternative Spring Break 2016: Gesundheit! Institute
Crowdfunding Highlight: Alternative Spring Break
Here at UMBC, we are eagerly anticipating the arrival of spring; spring means mild temperatures, longer afternoons, outdoorsy fun, and, of course, spring break. For most, this much needed respite from school is chance to take a mini-vacation, but for our amazing students, spring break is an opportunity to give back to the community through week-long service engagement trips. This year UMBC is offering four different Alternative Spring Break trips, and they all could use your support. Please consider funding these wonderful opportunities. Homelessness (led by students Markya Reed and Megan Lynch): Participants in this ASB trip will learn about the experience and challenges of… Continue Reading Crowdfunding Highlight: Alternative Spring Break
This #GivingTuesday, UMBC Students Need Your Help
The Thanksgiving leftovers have dwindled away and many of us have put a significant dent in our holiday shopping lists, having bustled through Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday. Three years ago, Giving Tuesday was established to encourage us to to break away from the consumerism and chaos that has swallowed up our holiday season and return to a spirit of giving. This year, there are a number of great causes to consider at UMBC for Giving Tuesday. While many students will enjoy much-needed time off from classes with family and friends over their spring break this March,… Continue Reading This #GivingTuesday, UMBC Students Need Your Help
UMBC is Changing the World with a Giving Heart
UMBC students understand the importance of charitable engagement and giving back: they know that making a difference in the lives of others is what makes the world go around. That’s why we’re celebrating our students and our community on National Philanthropy Day. This special day is a unique opportunity to acknowledge the importance of giving, volunteering, and charitable engagement to our society and our world. So, in honor of National Philanthropy Day, UMBC is proud to highlight three student initiatives that are lending a helping hand: Making connections, building friendship. Students will spend the week at the ARC of Carroll County, where they’ll get to… Continue Reading UMBC is Changing the World with a Giving Heart
[Photos] Thanks to You, UMBC Students Make a Difference This Spring
This March, while most college students were enjoying freedom from the classroom or even sunny days on the beach, a number of UMBC students instead chose to spend their week off from school in service learning experiences through Alternative Spring Break (ASB). These week-long service trips introduce students to the broad range of challenges our society faces and teach them how they can help change things for the better. Thanks to donors like you, our students were volunteering and serving for projects and organizations like: The Gesundheit Institute Through the Eyes of a Refugee The ARC of Carroll County Will Hope for Change… Continue Reading [Photos] Thanks to You, UMBC Students Make a Difference This Spring