If you’re looking for a vacation that offers more satisfactionthan a trip to Cancun, the Religious Life Council (RLC) is offeringtrips for students this spring break.

The RLC will be traveling to Denver, Chicago, Mexico, Michigan,and South Carolina. Each trip offers a different activity forstudents to participate in.

Katie Ziskovsky, student chaplain of service, offered a briefsynopsis of the five trips, each of which will run between six andeight days.

Students on the trip to Denver, Colo. will work with DenverUrban Ministries, an agency that works with the homeless. The groupwill be serving food and sorting goods for the homeless and willalso take a tour of homelessness in Denver. Every evening thestudents are free to explore Denver on their own.

The Chicago, Ill. trip is divided into two halves. During thefirst half, members will be sightseeing and visiting a variety ofjustice ministries, including the National Committee of InterfaithWorker Justice. The second half of the trip will take students tothe New Melloray Abbey in Dubuque to reflect.

During the trip to Nuevo Progresso, Mexico students will bestaying in Texas, but will cross into Mexico for three days tobuild a house. For recreation, trip-goers will also have time toshop in Mexico and will spend a day at South Padre Island.

The trip to Holland, Mich. is a part of the Habitat forHumanities Collegiate Challenge, and is, therefore, one of hundredsof trips taking place all over the country. Simpson’s group will bedoing projects for the Holland chapter of the National Habitat forHumanity. Again, students who go on this trip will have theirevenings free and one free day. Also, on the way home, they willspend some time in Chicago.

The annual trip to Cleveland, S.C. will take participants toAsbury Hills Camp and Retreat Center where they will work at thecampsite, which is up in the mountains. Students will also have thechance to do a high ropes course. According to Ziskovsky, “a majorcomponent of this trip is a lot of spiritual reflection.”

Student Development is sponsoring a sixth trip to WashingtonD.C. that will include a visit to the Holocaust Memorial Museum, atour of the Supreme Court and Congress and a meeting withcongressional representatives. There is also a free day forstudents and other group outings.

If one of these trips sounds interesting, there is a brochureavailable from RLC and they are still finalizing details.

If the financial component is of concern, Simpson’s Lilly granthas funds available for students who wish to go on these servicetrips.

Jan Everhart, Ph.D., director of the Lilly Initiative forVocational Exploration, explains how it works.

“Once the student pays the trip deposit, the grant will fund therest of the trip cost as stated in the spring trip brochure.”

Also with the trip to Washington D.C., Lilly will reimbursestudents for their meal costs up to $50. Students will need tobring in their receipts at the end of the trip.

The sign up deadline is tomorrow, Feb. 6 and is contingent onbringing a $25 non-refundable deposit. The full amount of thetrips, which range from $50 to $200, is due Feb. 26.

Chaplain of Spiritual Development, Angela Gafford, M Div., alsosaid that if there are still trip openings after Feb. 6, studentswho miss the deadline could still sign up with a $25 deposit.