| 2008
ASB Trips
Alternative Spring Break service-learning programs are designed to give Stanford students the chance to explore and learn about social and cultural issues through a combination of experiential learning activities (community organization visits, and direct service projects), group discussions, readings, and reflection activities.
The structure of the ASB program is outlined below. Selected participants are expected to take part in all components of the ASB program. ASB courses and trips are proposed, designed and facilitated by student leaders.
Program structure:
- Winter
Quarter Directed Reading course (1 unit) :
ASB participants take a specialized directed reading course developed and facilitated by the ASB leaders and a faculty advisor. By preparing participants with background knowledge of the individual program's relevant issues, the 1 unit discussion-based course enhances and deepens the spring break trip experience.
- Spring
Break Experience: ASB participants take part in a 6-7 day educational-immersion and service experience. Trips typically involve visits with community organizations, government agencies, advocacy and philanthropic organizations, and with elected officials and other community leaders working to address the issues related to the trip's theme. These visits, along with some direct service opportunities, allow participants to experience and critically examine the reality of the crucial issues within a community.
- After
spring break: The ASB Program hosts a reunion/celebration event for all program participants early in the Spring Quarter. In addition, most trips hold their own reunions at some point during the Spring Quarter. ASB and the Haas Center for Public Service encourage students to continue to remain committed to the issues they explored during their ASB experience. Advising assistance is available at the Haas Center, and small grants for post-trip service-related activities are available through ASB.
.
Everyone is
welcome to apply to become a participant; and there
is no prerequisite of prior public service involvement.
Trip
participants must commit to a $125 participant fee,
which includes most expenses (e.g. housing, food, local transportation)
during Spring Break . If a student participates in a non-local
travel trip requiring air travel, the participant will also
pay for airfare and complete a Stanford Fund
letter-writing shift.
Financial
aid is available to cover a significant portion of the participant
fee and/or airfare if applicable. ASB works closely with the
Office of Financial Aid to determine need.
Titles and descriptions for the 13 courses/trips offered in 2008:
A Veterans’ Affair: The Biomedical, Social, and Economic Impact of War
Art & Activism in San Francisco
Asian American Issues: From Identity to Action
Beyond Paradise: An Exploration of Indigenous Hawai'i
Border Town vs. Beach Town: San Diego’s Conflicted Identity
Changemakers: Perspectives on Public Service Leadership
Healthcare of Underserved Communities in Central California
Minority Health Issues in Los Angeles
Recovery, Relief, and Reconstruction in post-Katrina New Orleans
Separate and Not Equal: Urban Education Issues in California
Social Entrepreneurship in the Bay Area
The Challenge of Identity: The Filipino American in California
The Environment, Energy & Development: Multi-disciplinary Perspectives on Policy
A Veterans’ Affair: The Biomedical, Social, and Economic Impact of War
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As we celebrate Veterans Day with storewide sales, our veteran population commemorates years of armed service with mental illness, homelessness, and substance abuse. One of every three homeless persons has served our country in uniform; half of all veterans are mentally ill.
The winter quarter course will involve a combination of academic and service learning that addressees the public health and socio-economic status of our veterans and evaluates how current government actions are shaping veterans' rights. We will participate in weekly forums with clinicians, policy makers, and economists as well as direct discussions with veterans and current Iraqi service men and women. During the quarter, one to two field trips to the Menlo Park Veterans Affairs (VA) Hospital and to homeless shelters in the San Francisco area will take place.
During spring break, our class will travel to Washington D.C. to experience veterans’ affairs first hand. Through conversations with Congressional offices and VA administrators, a briefing at the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and community outreach projects with local veterans groups, we will begin to understand how the government deals with veterans needs and how young people like ourselves can act to make a difference. Through our trip, we will gain a deeper understanding and awareness of the socioeconomic, biomedical, and politic issues that veterans face.
Trip Leaders:
Ryan Joseph Melton rjmelton@stanford.edu
Jessica Tao jtao@stanford.edu
Trip-Specific Question:
What are your thoughts on the value of military service? What, if anything, is society's responsibility toward those who serve?
Art & Activism in San Francisco
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From its museums to its pirate supply store, San Francisco offers
exciting resources for the arts and possesses a tradition of
promoting community and social change. This ASB will introduce
Stanford students to Bay Area individuals and groups that explore
activism and the arts in visionary, risk-taking ways. Students will
interact with these artists and social activists to learn about how
art in its various forms can contribute to positive change. We aim to
broaden our participants' engagement with the arts so that students
may see the arts as more than just an extracurricular or leisure
activity. Additionally, we hope that firsthand experience of San
Francisco's diverse, vibrant cultural offerings will encourage
students to take more advantage of a city that's under an hour away.
Through readings, discussions and speakers in the winter quarter
directed reading, we will explores topics in contemporary art
practice and local activism: murals, graffiti, interventions, art
education and therapy, reporting on the arts, funding and corporate
sponsorship, bad art for good causes, good art for good causes.
Participants will visit San Francisco alternative spaces, film
organizations, and artist studios; volunteer with arts nonprofits;
create and compile material for a zine; and stage an on-campus
intervention for the beginning of the spring quarter. Prior
experience in the arts is not necessary.
Trip Leaders:
Maggie Cong maggiec@stanford.edu
Justine Lai jtlai@stanford.edu
Trip-Specific Question:
What interest do you have in art and/or activism that inspires you to apply for this ASB?
Asian American Issues: From Identity to Action
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What does 'Asian American' mean to you?
This seemingly simple, all encompassing term often casts Asian Americans as a homogenous group, marginalizing whole groups and individuals who don't fit neatly into mainstream conceptions.
The Asian American community is not a monolith; it is complex in identities, histories, and experiences.
Contrary to the popular "model minority" image, Asians Americans are not doing well on all fronts. In fact, disaggregated data for Asian Americans groups reveal great disparities in socioeconomic status, with many Southeast Asian groups among the most poverty stricken and least educated.
The Asian American Issues ASB is a life-changing, week-long trip that seeks to explore 'Asian American' identity, highlight the rich and varied experiences of Asian Americans, address real and pertinent issues facing these communities, and take collective action to improve these communities.
This transformative trip will give participants a unique opportunity to visit community organizations working directly with Asian American communities and see how folks are actively tackling issues that challenge these groups. Through this ASB trip, students are made aware of the privilege and power that they have to create social change. Students can become empowered and learn to fight for social justice and equality.
Trip Leaders:
Pahua Cha pcha@stanford.edu
Michael To mto1@stanford.edu
Henry Tsai httsai@stanford.edu
Trip-Specific Question:
What experiences have you had in your life that led you to be interested in Asian American issues?
Beyond Paradise: An Exploration of Indigenous Hawai'i
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With its ideal tropical climate, breath taking landscapes and white sandy beaches, Hawai`i and Paradise are often considered synonymous. What most people fail to realize, however, is that while Hawai`i may offer the perfect tropical getaway for visitors from around the world, it faces many problems of its own. Behind the idealistic media portrayal of this tropical island archipelago lies a rich indigenous culture and unique native environment being threatened by commercial and industrial forces. Since the "discovery" of Hawai`i and her resources in the 1700s, the indigenous culture, fauna and flora have been faced with many challenges. With the "modern" developments in Hawai`i over the past century, much of the previously pristine forest land and beachfront property has been appropriated for commercial use, the native plant and animal population has been forced to the brink of extinction. To this day efforts to perpetuate Native Hawaiian culture continue to face legal and social threats. The goal of this Alternative Spring Break is to expose students to a variety of issues that modern Hawai`i faces.
This year's ASB Hawai`i will take participants to the island of Maui, where they will explore environmental, social and cultural issues through first hand experience and active service learning. Participants can expect to work in Haleakala National Park to remove invasive alien plant species, help with the harvesting of taro in a traditional Hawaiian lo`i, and participate in beach clean ups, while learning about various other social and environmental issues from some of Maui's community leaders. The ultimate goal of this Alternative Spring Break experience is to impart knowledge and instill a passion in participants to not only spread awareness about the real problems Hawai`i faces today, but to take an active role in trying to solve them.
Trip Leaders:
Rachel Ho rlumho@stanford.edu
Daniel Jachowski danielja@stanford.edu
Trip-Specific Question:
What are some of your current perceptions of Hawaii? Do you feel that some of these images may be either artificial or stereotypical? Which of these perceptions of Hawaii would you be interested in exploring during your Alternative Spring Break experience?
Border Town vs. Beach Town: San Diego’s Conflicted Identity
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“Welcome to San Diego: where blue skies keep watch on 70 miles of beaches and a gentle Mediterranean climate begs for a day of everything and nothing. ”
“In San Diego County, almost four times as many Latino children live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level than white children. ”
Which is the San Diego you know? Spend your spring break getting to know the other.
Unlike other border cities, the challenges confronting San Diego are not obvious. San Diego boasts a large urban population, one of the nation's priciest (and still booming) housing markets, and vibrant biotechnology and tourism industries. The city is home to over 70 miles of sandy beaches, making it an ideal vacation destination.
We challenge you to see beyond this and endeavor to bring you where palm trees and beaches are hardly the reality. Because of San Diego’s high cost of living and the availability of low-wage jobs, the percent of people living in poverty outpaces poverty rates for the rest of California and the rest of the country. Border communities – those with high immigrant populations – in San Diego also bear startlingly differences: they are home to more than twice the percentage of children in poverty and have higher teen pregnancy rates. Education attainment is lower and lack of health insurance is common.
A contributing source of complexity is this: San Diego and Tijuana from the continent’s largest bi-national metropolitan area, and as such, is a key player in highly politicized issues such as immigration policy and distribution of public resources. This area also represents an extreme in the growing healthcare crisis in the United States as large migrant populations in both cities lack health insurance.
During our ten-week course and subsequent spring break trip, we will attempt to understand what life is like in the San-Diego-Tijuana border area. We’ll examine how immigration policy is affecting residents of this area, how access to healthcare distinguishes communities from one another, and experience a day in the life of a Border Patrol officer. By working with local organizations and those served by these organizations, the trip will also put a face on issues that are dominating the headlines.
Regardless of students’ backgrounds and career objectives, understanding the challenges that of this particular region is a conduit for understanding the national debates on immigration policy, border safety, undocumented immigration, and healthcare coverage. As future healthcare professionals, students can bear witness to the struggles of the medically underserved and as future policy makers and political leaders, students can evaluate the success and shortcomings of current policies.
We hope you’ll join us.
Trip Leaders:
Tien Dong tdong@stanford.edu
Jessica Zhang jzhang1@stanford.edu
Trip-Specific Question:
In what ways do you think San Diego's identity might be conflicted? How do you think this affects our understanding of the San Diego-Tijuana border area, if at all?
Changemakers: Perspectives on Public Service Leadership
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The Changemakers ASB will explore public service leadership through the lens of the great leaders of the past and present. In winter quarter, we will discuss what leadership means in the context of public service, read about some of the great leaders of the past, and meet with changemakers in the Bay Area. Over spring break, we will spend a week in New York and Boston engaging with public service leaders in those two cities. We believe that meeting people who have brought about great change will infuse us with even greater enthusiasm for service and a better idea of how we can translate that enthusiasm into impact.
Our goal is to develop frameworks for personal growth in public service leadership. We hope that each of us will leave with:
* Several new models of leadership and examples of changemakers
* An expanded understanding of what leadership is and of its diverse forms – local, national, and international, and both in and out of government
* A strengthened passion for intense, high-level service that will influence future choices regarding academic and career paths, and that will infect the rest of the student body
* A better sense of his or her own personal leadership style
In addition, participants in this ASB will serve as volunteer research assistants with the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in researching and selecting candidates for the 2008 release of U.S. News and World Report's "America's Best Leaders" feature. Students must commit an average of two hours a week to the project during the winter quarter, in addition to the normal reading for our SIC.
Trip Leaders:
Anuraag Chigurupati anuraag@stanford.edu
Jonny Dorsey jdorsey@stanford.edu
Trip-Specific Question:
Describe your personal leadership style. What have been your successes and failures?
Healthcare of Underserved Communities in Central California
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The US currently spends over sixteen percent of its GDP on health care—more than any other country in the world. Despite these staggering expenditures, however, it is the only country in the world that regards health care as a privilege rather than a right. With health care costs on the rise, more and more people are falling through the cracks of our health care system, many unable to receive even the most basic forms of treatment.
Here in our own state of California, one population considered to be underserved with respect to health care is the migrant farm worker community of the Central Valley. Indeed, migrant farm workers and their families suffer from a host of health problems including occupational health injuries, chronic diseases, and issues related to mental health. Nevertheless, only five percent are covered by some form of health insurance. The other ninety-five percent often decline medical treatment for fear of losing their jobs or because of the high costs of health care.
This ASB trip and its associated course will examine current efforts underway to provide migrant farm worker communities with health care from many different levels. We will explore the perspectives of physicians, public health organizations, politicians, lawyers, farmers, unions, community health workers, and community members themselves to better understand the challenges in providing and accessing health care services. The course will focus on defining the social and biological determinants of health and understanding the importance of patient advocacy. During Spring Break, we will then apply our knowledge from the classroom and learn from leaders in the many fields related to farm worker health. The trip may include visiting local health clinics, meeting politicians in Sacramento, and volunteering with farm workers themselves. The shortcomings of the US health care system have become a hot topic of discussion in recent years, and as fellow citizens it is important to understand and appreciate the complexities behind these issues.
Trip Leaders:
Simone Asare sasare@stanford.edu
Melissa Liu mliu718@stanford.edu
Trip-Specific Question:
Why do you personally think that it is important to learn about the barriers to healthcare experienced by migrant farm workers and other underserved communities? Propose an idea for raising awareness about these issues on campus.
Minority Health Issues in Los Angeles
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With the racial demographics of the United States changing due to immigration and other factors, Los Angeles presently represents a city of the future. As a city in the United States where the majority of the population is recognized as a minority; over fifty percent of the population speaks a language other than English at home; twenty-five percent of the population is uninsured; and eighteen percent of the population is insured through Medicaid, Los Angeles presently experiences socioeconomic demographics which are being increasingly mirrored throughout the nation. These changing demographics will greatly affect the future of healthcare policy, a big issue in the United States right now. Thus the city demographics combined with its mounting healthcare issues make Los Angeles a goldmine for understanding the present and future health disparities being faced by minorities in this nation.
On this trip we will take advantage of this nearby goldmine to investigate existing health disparities and learn ways in which we can all make a difference. On the trip we will serve the underserved and represented healthcare communities in Los Angeles through collaboration with community centers and hospitals in the area. We will use this service to educate ourselves on the complexity of health disparities in the nation. Using Los Angeles as our specific case study, we will develop ways in which we can pragmatically and actively advocate for and enable healthcare equality for minority populations across the United States.
Trip Specific Question: Health care is an issue facing Americans all over the country. How do you think that health care can be made more equitable from a grassroots perspective? Is it feasible to try to make health care equitable?
Trip Leaders:
John Dryden jcdryden@stanford.edu
Tomi Onatunde onatunde@stanford.edu
Trip-Specific Question:
Health care is an issue facing Americans all over the country. How do you think that health care can be made more equitable from a grassroots perspective? Is it feasible to try to make health care equitable?
Recovery, Relief, and Reconstruction in post-Katrina New Orleans
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On this trip, we will explore the broad array of issues created in the wake of the hurricane, through service work in areas drastically affected by the storm and through visits with organizations and people who are attempting to rebuild. Through hands-on construction work, we will dive into the stories of the countless lives uprooted by the historic event and converse directly with residents from areas like St. Bernard’s Parish and the Ninth Ward.
However, reconstructing a society and culture involves much more than physical building, and we will expose ourselves to other societal concerns in the hope of gaining an overall understanding of the vastness of the rebuilding issue. Healthcare, education, government and ecology are merely a few areas that are experiencing changes and hardships three years after the initial event, and we will begin to see the interconnectedness of all during our weeklong exploration. In visits to schools, meetings with local government and experiences from cultural immersion we will be able to ask questions of those who are not only living with the effects of the hurricane but who are also attempting to rebuild a society currently immersed in destruction. Our construction work and visits throughout the region should serve as an opening to the vast problems New Orleans is facing, and should provide an opportunity to think critically about the decisions our government makes on behalf of all of us.
Trip Leaders:
Kelly Gleischman kgleisch@stanford.edu
Christopher Khavarian khavaria@stanford.edu
Michelle Meyer mmeyer23@stanford.edu
Nishma Sachedina nishma@stanford.edu
Eric Showen eashowen@stanford.edu
Trip-Specific Question:
If you could speak to one person about Katrina who would it be and why?
Separate and Not Equal: Urban Education Issues in California
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Interested in learning more about education policy? Do you enjoy working with kids? This ASB will aim to see how urban education has been described as a "savage inequality." Society links education with "equality of opportunity," however it continually denies children the right to equal terms. The problems of urban education, particularly in California's public schools, are rampant and not often given the attention they deserve. California, a state ripe with reform, little progress, and growing diversity, will be fascinating to explore from both policy and grassroots perspectives. Urban Education in California will examine themes such as economic and residential segregation, immigration, school funding, and reforms.
Trip participants will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the problems of urban education by meeting with policymakers, administrators, teachers, and working with children in the Bay Area. This directed reading course and spring break trip will cover a broad range of issues pertaining to this topic, whether you are interested in the state's education policies, the problems faced by Bay Area schools, or the issues from the community's perspective. This trip aims to encourage sustainable partnerships between our local community and Stanford students.
Trip Leaders:
Cristina Sepe csepe@stanford.edu
Rebecca Velasco rebeccav@stanford.edu
Trip-Specific Question:
This ASB trip hopes to provide students with different perspectives shaped by their schooling experience. Thus, describe your school background: the demographics of your school and neighborhood, the types of classes that were offered, the resources you used when applying to college. To what degree do you think these different factors have influenced your life and the opportunities you have today?
Social Entrepreneurship in the Bay Area
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"A social entrepreneur identifies and solves social problems on a
large scale... just as business entrepreneurs create and transform
whole industries" -- PBS documentary "The New Heroes"
Social entrepreneurship is a new way of thinking about society's
tough issues. In diverse fields like poverty relief, health,
technology, and education, social entrepreneurs look beyond
traditional approaches to design and implement creative, sustainable
solutions to real-world problems.
As one of the most innovative places in the world, the Bay Area has
served as an incubator for many of social entrepreneurship's great
ideas. It is home to organizations like Kiva, an organization that
allows anyone to lend money to the working poor in developing
countries, Benetech, a nonprofit technology company developing
software to document human rights abuses, OneWorld Health, a
nonprofit pharmaceutical company producing affordable medicines for
diseases affecting developing countries, and Delancey Street, a
network of businesses run by ex-felons and substance abusers to learn
skills to rebuild their lives.
Over the course of winter quarter we will examine innovative Bay Area
organizations and learn about the infrastructure that makes social
entrepreneurship possible. During spring break, we will visit these
organizations and engage with experts in the field of social
entrepreneurship. Through conversations with successful social
entrepreneurs, service activities, and active creativity, we will get
involved with every step of social entrepreneurship—from observation
to idea generation to potential implementation.
There's never been a more exciting time to begin learning about
social entrepreneurship. And there's no better place to get started
than here at Stanford and around the Bay Area!
Trip Leaders:
Sophia Tu sophia2@stanford.edu
Kalvin Wang kalvin@stanford.edu
Trip-Specific Question:
Looking at the phrase "social entrepreneurship," what about the "social" aspect appeals to you? What about the "entrepreneurship" aspect appeals to you?
The Challenge of Identity: The Filipino American in California
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"Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan, ay hindi makararating sa paroroonan."
A person who does not remember where he/she came from will never reach his/her destination.
This traditional Filipino proverb emphasizes the importance of understanding your past in order to gain direction and find purpose.
As the largest Asian ethnicity in California and the second-largest Asian ethnicity in the nation, Pilipinos have undeniably played a major role in shaping California. From the migrant farm laborers and their contribution to the state's agricultural growth, to the Filipino soldiers who fought and died alongside Americans in the Second World War still not recognized by the US Government, the Filipino experience in California is in danger of being forgotten. Often clustered together under the "model minority" stereotype associated with Asian-Americans, the alarming social inequalities disproportionably faced by Filipinos across multiple spheres reveal more than what meets the eye. Disparities in education access and achievement, health status and youth violence are in need of critical attention. According to government studies, Filipinos rank highest in AIDS cases among Asians and Pacific Islanders in the Bay Area and California, account for 26% of the teen pregnancies among API teens in Los Angeles, and consist of a youth population where nearly one in five Filipino teenagers attempt suicide. We cannot forget these people and their past, which is so inextricably intertwined with the history of this state and nation.
The winter quarter course will provide an opportunity for participants to examine critical issues of identity through multiple forms of expression: readings, films, artwork, audio recordings, and guest speakers. Through these media, we will discuss health and education disparities, affirmative action, gender issues, sexuality, the role of hip hop and the arts, and politics, in order to gain an understanding of Californian history as seen through the prism of the Filipino-American experience. During our trip, we will explore decades of Philippine-Californian history. We will speak with community leaders, organizers, musicians, activists, poets, community members, and youth all across California that are actively involved in the Filipino community - from San Francisco's SoMa district and Little Manila in Stockton to Manilatown in Los Angeles. The lessons gained from this ASB experience transcend the winter-quarter class and spring trip. By focusing on the historical and contemporary forces that have shaped Filipino experience in California, we hope ASB participants will gain a greater understanding of the ideas and events that inform cultural identity.
Trip Leaders:
Victor Cruz vicruz@stanford.edu
Elisa Nasol enasol@stanford.edu
Liberty Reforma libertyr@stanford.edu
Trip-Specific Question:
Please describe a specific experience in which an aspect of your
identity affected the way the people perceived you.
The Environment, Energy & Development: Multi-disciplinary Perspectives on Policy
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The 1987 UN report by Bruntland Commission defines sustainable development is development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." This describes the basic challenge that this ASB will explore. What does sustainable development mean to an economist, to an architect, to an urban planner, to an engineer, to an NGO, to a doctor, to an academic, to a politician, to someone on the street? In this ASB we will explore many different ways that people are pursuing a more sustainable world and how these perspectives fit together.
In the winter quarter course and on the Spring break itself we will look at six different approaches to sustaining development: environmental challenges, resource management, food security, climate control, foreign aid policies and programs, and international health. In the nation’s capital we will have access to the top organizations and policy experts in the country working on development. How do the Worldwatch Institute and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency address the problems of development from an environmental perspective? Who are the major players in international food security, and what issues are they facing today? How do the World Bank, U.S. AID, and the Inter-American Development Bank ensure the sustainability and effectiveness of foreign aid and other aid initiatives? How do international health organizations like the Gates Foundation and Global Fund for AIDS, TB, and Malaria frame the challenges of development?
Our week in D.C. will bring these six different approaches together under the auspices of “sustainable development.” Through our multi-perspective look at sustainable development, we will come away with an understanding of the issues involved in developing our land, cities, businesses, and communities and the decisions our generation will have to make about tomorrow's sustainable world.
Trip Leaders:
Eric Jung ejung@stanford.edu
Xander Slaski xslaski@stanford.edu
Beth Wei ewei@stanford.edu
Trip-Specific Question:
Write a poem about sustainable development. Or about anything. Be creative. We’ll be open-minded. This is your chance to show us that you’re fun and have a good imagination.
View past ASB trips to see the nature and range of issues addressed.
2006-2007 | 2005-2006 | 2004-2005 | 2003-2004 | 2002-2003 | 2001-2002
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