Building a Movement for Justice

The world needs students who are equipped with the skills to actively fight injustice and build community. International alternative breaks—short-term, student-led trips that enable participants to explore social justice and environmental issues at their root—enable students to do just that, focusing their good intentions and altruistic desires on constructive and movement-building endeavors.

In short, as they learn from inspirational community leaders through direct engagement, they learn to become active citizens in their communities, harnessing their energy, curiosity, and resources in ways that provide for deep learning, relationship building across borders, and continued action and social change. This same model can also be used to enhance longer-term travel, including semester- and year-abroad programs, which can boost learning and impact and provide students with a more authentic experience that engages more deeply with the host community.

A well-structured alternative break is a powerful transformative learning experience that sparks motivation long after the travel is completed. When students are challenged to think about social justice, oppression, inequalities, and environmental destruction, the time they spend studying or volunteering abroad will help ignite a curiosity about social justice issues that can have profound impact on students.

Take the 10-day trip I went on with students to explore the complexities of the Israeli and Palestinian grassroots peace movements. We met with rabbis who work for human rights, toured the barrier that separates neighborhoods in Jerusalem, spent several nights with warm and generous homestay families in Bethlehem, spoke with radical right-wing Jewish settlers on the West Bank, visited