Alternative Break Service Experiences
If you’re looking to make a difference in the lives of others, we offer several extended service experiences. Our Alternative Break Missions provide a unique opportunity to join with other GMercyU students, faculty, and staff members in service projects around the country and the world.
You’ll perform worthwhile community service while learning about cultural and social issues facing your host community. It's an experience you'll never forget, and one that you'll want to repeat again and again throughout your time here.
Campus Ministry Alternative Break Service Experiences, GMercyU-Style
As part of our Alternative Break service program, the GMercyU Campus Ministry team offers service-immersion experiences during school breaks as part of a deep and lasting commitment to service. Students, faculty, and staff who participate in these experiences have nothing but positive feedback to offer.
ASB participants have a desire to:
- Be of service to others
- Learn more about economic poverty, diversity and social justice
- Live simply
- Grow in your spirituality
- Reflect on your experiences, individually and as a community
- Strengthen your leadership qualities and commitment to the future
Alternative Break 2022 Trips
Alternative Spring Break: Baltimore, MD (March 6-12, 2022)
This group will stay with a Mercy Volunteer Corps community. A portion of the experience will be to accompany these full-time volunteers to their service sites around the city. At Stella Maris, a hospice and retirement center, we will engage in a variety of activities with clients and residents. We will practice a “Ministry of Presence” as we spend quality time with each person, listening and assisting as necessary. We will volunteer at the Franciscan Center and learn about its long history serving this diverse city. Finally, we will hear about the pervasive challenge of homelessness in Baltimore which disproportionately impacts persons of color, and the collaborative initiatives underway to alleviate the problem.
Alternative Summer Break: Benson, Vermont (May 8-12, 2022)
This team will work and live with the Sisters at Mercy Farm, an eco-spiritual center whose mission is to inspire reverence for Earth and to work towards sustainability of life by acting in harmony with all creation. Mercy Farm focuses on connecting people with nature and healing the Earth through school and community outreach, farming, gardening and more. While on the Farm, team members will be learning about the environment, tending to the land and the animals, and helping with cleaning, painting and organizational projects. Throughout it all, they will be present to the experience through their interactions with the Sisters and with one another.
The application deadline was December 6, 2021. Please contact campusministrystaff@gmercyu.edu with any questions, comments, or concerns.