Students Spend Break Selflessly

Published: Mar 19, 2006

TAMPA - Juan Pineda arrived at his spring break destination last week and was struck by horror.

It was Mississippi's Gulf Coast, a region still upended after the devastating floods and winds of Hurricane Katrina. He and seven other students from the University of South Florida walked into houses barely standing, carrying bleach to scrub away mold, meeting families who just wanted their lives back.

"I was in shock," said Pineda, 23. "We didn't know what to do or how to do it."

Pineda, a senior international studies major, was one of at least 16 USF students who volunteered their time and efforts offering relief to storm victims, forgoing a more traditional college spring break of beaches and bars.

As many as 10,000 college students nationwide were expected to spend their spring breaks cleaning up the hurricane-ravaged regions in Louisiana and Mississippi, according to Campus Compact, a coalition of 950 colleges and universities committed to using higher education as a conduit to public service.

Last year's hurricanes might have raised the numbers.

At USF, for instance, nearly 200 students embarked on 18 trips throughout the nation, building wheelchair ramps for senior citizens, serving food at homeless shelters and repairing homes in New Orleans, among other activities.

That compares with 10 trips last year. So many students were interested in volunteering then that school organizers had to turn some away, so they planned more trips for this year, said Amy Simon, USF's volunteer coordinator.

USF graduate student Wayne Wright, 21, came back to Tampa on Saturday after spending a week in Washington, D.C., with 11 fellow students. They talked to young people about the dangers of HIV and AIDS and passed out condoms. They slept on a church floor at night.

Before this year, Wright said he vacationed the traditional college way: Jamaica one year, Cancun the next. He tired of that after four years.

"This year I'm leaving with something," said Wright, who studies special education at USF.

Campus Compact estimates that the percentage of schools offering spring break volunteer opportunities has increased from 66 percent to 77 percent since 2000. USF students pay about $100 to $350 to participate and spend up to a year raising money for the rest of what's needed, Simon said.

There was less time to prepare to aid Katrina victims. Students say images of a flooded New Orleans and a debris-strewn Mississippi remain seared in their memories.

USF graduate student Komal D'Souza said she arrived in Pascagoula, Miss., on Monday and found "sidewalks that led to nothing."

The initial shock for Pineda eventually passed. Last week, he spent a day picking up debris and shattered picture frames at one home. Then he met its occupants: a husband and wife and their children. They were expecting another child.

"It was heartbreaking," Pineda said. "We were picking up the pieces of someone's life."

By ADAM EMERSON This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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