{"id":298,"date":"2018-03-08T15:58:07","date_gmt":"2018-03-08T15:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2018\/03\/08\/201838alternative-spring-break-trip-to-michigan-cancelled\/"},"modified":"2020-09-05T19:48:07","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T19:48:07","slug":"201838alternative-spring-break-trip-to-michigan-cancelled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2018\/03\/08\/201838alternative-spring-break-trip-to-michigan-cancelled\/","title":{"rendered":"Alternative spring break trip to Michigan canceled"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Matt Grahn<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

An alternative spring break trip for Quinnipiac students to Battle Creek, Michigan has been canceled due to low participation. Vincent Contrucci, the director of the ffice of community service, said that this is the first time he has had to cancel a trip in his 11 years of working at Quinnipiac. <\/span><\/p>\n

Contrucci said that he has been able to send groups of Quinnipiac students to the Habitat for Humanity branch in Battle Creek for the past eight years, but this year \u201cit just didn\u2019t work out.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEven though I had 20 students apply, it didn\u2019t mean that all students accepted invitations to participate on the trip. I had people that dropped out, so ultimately I had to cancel one of the trips,\u201d said Contrucci. <\/span><\/p>\n

Contrucci said there has been a decline in students interested in the trips in recent years, though he doesn\u2019t know why. <\/span><\/p>\n

In its most recent data, the <\/span>U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said that<\/span><\/a> only 18.4 percent of individuals aged 20 to 24 volunteered in 2015, while individuals aged 35 to 44 volunteered the most with 28.9 percent. <\/span><\/p>\n

The reason why the school decided not to send just a small group was due to a matter of resources. Matt Kurz, assistant dean of student affairs for campus life, said that the cost of each trip is determined by how many students are going. <\/span><\/p>\n

That trip budget would be used to pay for food and lodging, and the trip is more cost-efficient if more students go. He added that only sending along a few people wouldn\u2019t have enough of an impact on the construction work for the trip. <\/span><\/p>\n

Kurz said that this is an unusual situation. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt previous institutions that I\u2019ve worked at, going on an alternative spring break trip is very highly valued. Students are excited, (they) want to go and want to participate,\u201d said Kurz. <\/span><\/p>\n

Some Quinnipiac students, such as junior Charissa-Joy Okang, did not notice the trip\u2019s promotional emails or posters.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t look at the posters anyway,\u201d Okang said. \u201cEmail (depends on) who it\u2019s coming from. I wouldn\u2019t remember getting an email.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Kurz agreed, illustrating his perspective on selling the idea of the trip to students.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m going to buy a car,\u201d said Kurz, \u201cthe car salesman is going to say \u2018Hey! This car is great and here are all the reasons you should buy it.\u2019 But I know I\u2019m working with a car salesman that has an interest in me buying that car.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf a friend of mine says \u2018Hey! I own a Subaru, and Subarus are great for these reasons\u2019 I\u2019m more likely to listen to that friend.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Okang agreed with Kurz\u2019s logic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think If you had actual students… talking about their actual experiences, (it would) be more like \u2018I wanna do that too\u2019 rather than coming from an email,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Okang, a biology major, will travel to the Dominican Republic as part of her Global Public Health minor. She looked forward to being able to help people while experiencing a Spanish-speaking country. When she learned about the minor, she attended a presentation with a friend. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe met some of the people who went on the trips\u2026 they made it very exciting to join them,\u201d Okang said. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sophomore Nadia Filipic said that, as a sister of Kappa Delta, she regularly does community service with the Children\u2019s Center of Hamden and the Girl Scouts. She added that serving others is important. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think we all have to try and help people out and make the world a better place. Whatever you can do to help… it\u2019s a good thing,\u201d said Filipic.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the cancellation, Contrucci was concerned about students not wanting to get out of their comfort zone. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the reason to go to college is to experience new things, and if you\u2019re only sticking with the familiar, you\u2019re not growing,\u201d said Contrucci. <\/span><\/p>\n

Contrucci said that the students who participated in previous trips have come back to Quinnipiac \u201centhusiastic\u201d about the experience, especially since they get to learn something in a new way. He added that going on a service trip when he was in college was memorable. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the things that really sticks out that I recall and remember. It influenced my perceptions about the homeless population in the United States,\u201d said Contrucci. <\/span><\/p>\n

As for the future of the alternative spring break trip at Quinnipiac, Contrucci isn\u2019t sure what will happen. In the meantime, the other trip to assist Habitat for Humanity in Cornelius, North Carolina will commence. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that it’s successful as (it has) been in the past, that the students have a positive experience and the affiliate has a positive experience with the team that they receive,\u201d said Contrucci.<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Habitat for Humanity Deutschland<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After eight years of Habitat for Humanity trips to Battle Creek, Michigan, the annual Quinnipiac alternative spring break trip has been cancelled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":299,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[142,6],"tags":[180,179,178],"class_list":["post-298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-quinnipiac","tag-battle-creek","tag-habitat-for-humanity","tag-spring-break"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2933,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions\/2933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}