DePaul University students will trade rest and relaxation for community service during Spring Break, which runs March 24 through March 28. Students will visit eight U.S. cities during the break that range from cosmopolitan New York City to rural Cranks Creek, Kent. In a similar initiative, DePaul College of Law students will travel to El Salvador, where they will be introduced to the concept of reforming a judicial system following a period of conflict.

The U.S. projects, which are sponsored by University Ministry, will include a range of service activities including providing service to a Latino community while learning about its political, economic and social influences; serving those living with HIV/AIDS while learning how the disease affects the social, political and economic standing of those suffering with the illness; and providing grass roots community development service while learning about the coal mining industry’s affect on a rural community.

The eight U.S. sites and projects are:

1) Peace/Non-violence/Political Activism (Baltimore, Md.) Students will live with an intentional faith-based community devoted to nonviolence, anti-nuclear war and social justice. They will learn about intentional communities, simple living and peace activism and participate in peace vigils.

2) Building Projects (Cranks Creek, Kent.) Students will complete building projects with members of a local grass roots community development organization. They will live in a rural community and learn about the coal mining industry’s effect on this community economically, politically, socially and in matters of health.

3) Rural Poverty/ Education (Okolona, Miss.) In the heart of the rural South, students will examine issues of race, education. They will examine issues of race, education and poverty and work in after school learning programs, a thrift store and other physical labor projects.

4) Civil Rights Movement/ Working with Children (Montgomery, Ala.) Students will study the American civil rights movement’s past, present and future and work with children with developmental disabilities.

5) HIV/AIDS (New Orleans, La.) Students will interact with and serve those living with HIV/AIDS in meals programs and residential care facilities. They will explore how HIV/AIDS affects people on social, political, economic and cultural levels.

6) Latino Community/Urban Poverty (New York, N.Y.) Students will be immersed in an urban, Latino community to learn more about the political, economic, social and cultural influences that are an everyday reality for the people who reside there. Service will include everything from working with children and/or families in building or cleaning projects to education and community development.

7) African American Community/ Urban Poverty (Philadelphia, Pa.) Students will work and live in an urban Philadelphia neighborhood. They will work with children and families in education, community development and faith-based settings while learning more about the justice issues surrounding urban poverty and how communities address them.

8) Homelessness (Washington, D.C.) Students will learn about homelessness and explore the deeper issues and resources available for change. They will work in soup kitchens, shelters and transitional living homes.

In El Salvador, College of Law students will meet with Salvadoran lawyers and law professors and have discussions with people impacted by certain social, economic and political issues. They will also visit legal institutions and non-governmental organizations and sites of historical significance. The El Salvador trip is part of a College of Law course, “Justice System Reforms after Conflict: El Salvador, A Case Study.” The class includes a study of El Salvador’s tremendous political and legal change during the past 25 years, following its signing of peace accords in 1992 which ended a 12-year period of armed civil conflict.