File: TTInterviewB03032016
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[Music]

Q: Thanks for coming. Hi.

So can we talk a little bit about the

Alternative Spring Break group?

A: Alternative spring break has been

around at Ryerson since 2008.

It's a completely student-run

organization and we basically facilitate

international volunteer trips abroad. So

we've done, I believe this year we're

running two trips, so it'll be our

13th trip abroad by the end of this year.

And we just have a huge focus on

sustainable and ethical volunteering

with grassroots organizations and,

yeah that's really like the gist of it.

Q: What do you mean

grassroots organizations? A: So we try

to avoid like

big international volunteering groups

like Me to Wo, like not that we have an

issue with them, but just

something smaller and more focused on

community-based asset development

is more,

it's a more unique experience and it's a

little bit more, they're able to cater it

to what we

are looking for as an organization and

it's kind of a more personal and

unique experience overall. Q: And how did

you get involved?

A: I actually just found out about it

from a friend who had been doing

alternative spring break before and I'd

been posting about

traveling on Facebook and he commented

on my Facebook, and was like,

hey you should check out ASB. Like you

would probably like this, and I applied.

As a team member

in 2014, I went to Uganda and it was

amazing and cheesy, and great and I got

involved there and then

all of the leadership team left and I

applied to be coordinator and I got it

and I'm still here.

Q: And what's happening this year? A: So this

year we're running two separate trips.

One to India, and one to Laos which we're

really excited about. So

we went to India last year and it was a

really successful trip, so we're

returning with the same organization,

Euro India.

That's a group of 11 students are going

to build latrines in a tribal community

in India

and the Laos group is doing more of a

social project and will be volunteering

with an organization that has

a group, it's like a guest home

rather.

That is providing jobs and workshops for

women who are displaced from

abuse from their villages and they come

there to learn skills and bring them

back to their respective communities. So

we'll be volunteering with them and kind

of repairing some of the buildings on

their site, but also helping them run

workshops and things so

that'll be really interesting. Q: And then

where is Laos? A: Laos is

just north of Thailand so we're like

right on the border of Thailand.

it kind of is like in between Thailand

and Vietnam.

It's like a hidden country. Q: And then that

experience - you're just helping the women

like build their lives back?

A: Basically they're,

they're what we would call, like a very

grassroots organization. They,

the women really like run it themselves

so this woman from the netherlands

started it.

It's like a guest house, so like

volunteers can come and stay and you can

be as involved or as little involved in

the day-to-day runnings of it as if

as you want. But yeah it's like a

women's empowerment

place basically so we help them run

their workshops and

things like that. Q: And then I know the

group is associated with Ryerson

and how does the funding work for this?

A: Yeah so

we are a Ryerson student group so

basically

how it works is we all the students pay

a fee

and the fee is half the cost

approximately of what it would be to go.

And our reason being is international

volunteer trips are super expensive and

typically not really affordable for

students so we cut the cost in half. So

this year

the team members, like team Laos is

paying 1800 each, in

India is 1900 that's the membership fee.

So you pay that to us and then we

fundraise the rest together. So we do

fundraising. Fundraising initiatives like

bar nights, like

we have a silent auction coming up on

March 23rd. That's like our big event

and then myself and the leadership

team works on like

speaking to deans and applying for

on-campus grants to get the rest of the

money.

Q: And then you said 11 students are going

from Ryerson.

Are they all from Ryerson? A: It's 20 in

total. So it's 11 going to India and nine

going to Laos.

This year we're actually

excited to be trying something a little

bit new. We have two

students - one from University of Waterloo

and one from University of Toronto.

One of them is going to India, and one of

them is going to Laos and it's just

a little way to move towards possibly

establishing Alternative spring breaks

at other schools. We do get complimented

on the way that

we run the organization. We're unique in

that we don't bring

faculty with us abroad even though we

get asked to every year. Our faculty

advisor is very adamant that it would be

different without it, so we're trying to

kind of

give other students from other schools

an opportunity to see how we run so they

could go back and

make one at their own school if they so

pleased to do so. Q: And then what have you

and any of the other students learned from

your experiences with this trip?

A: So much it has completely changed the

trajectory of what I wanted to do

as of saying before I'm in film

studies but I'm now minoring in NGO

administration and it's completely

shifted the way I function basically.

But I think in all it just those trips

really just put things into perspective

for you. You don't really look

at your life back home the same

afterward and you stop taking things for

granted so much.

Thank you so much for being here and

taking some time to speak with us.