Meet the Alternative Break Leaders and Trip!

Meet the Leaders

Kristin: I am a senior in Mechanical Engineering. Some of my hobbies include cooking, crafting, and ultimate frisbee. I absolutely love the Alternative Break Program at UT. This will be my third trip to go on and my second one to lead. I have really loved the friendships I have made on these trips and the service I have done in the different areas. I am really looking forward to this trip because I think that we have some great service sites, and I think that we will learn a lot from these sites.



Dan: I am a junior studying English Literature with the intent to pursue secondary education. In addition to my passion for the Alternative Break Program, I enjoy hiking and the outdoors. I have enjoyed planning this trip with Kristin, and look forward to its execution. My short time with the Alternative Break Program has given me many great experiences, and I hope everyone on the trip may create their own as we learn and serve.

Mission:

We seek to create an educational, interactive experience, which through service and discussions, fosters awareness and motivation that may be used to create a more understanding, compassionate world.

Meet the Trip

Our trip's focus is Disability/Ability Awareness. Our enthusiasm for the theme has led us to do related service work in the past and instilled in us a desire to spread awareness of it. An estimated 37 million Americans, 12 percent of the population, have been diagnosed with some form of disability.  Mental and physical disabilities are extremely varied and each one creates unique challenges not only for the person with the disability, but also for the person’s family and friends.  While there are many organizations that help persons with disabilities, they cannot function without volunteers. This is where we come in!

We want to work and serve with people with disabilities in our location so we can grow by learning more about this issue and so they can develop as well. We will be working with a variety of organizations who help people with mental and physical disabilities focus on their abilities. We will be helping these organizations with their day-to-day work and we will be interacting with their participants so we can focus on and strengthen their abilities.

We are EXTREMELY excited for our trip! We can't wait to meet our participants so we can serve with them this spring break! It's gonna be AWESOME!!!