Spring Break Trips

Step fully into a subject area that you're interested in, whether that is disaster relief, intentional community, urban ministry, or restorative justice.  Delve into a community for a week and come back changed.

Pick from one of many places to serve such as Boston, West Virginia, Louisiana, or Three Rivers. You will travel with student leaders, faculty or staff mentors and other students. The trips incorporate a service component, outings to discover the community, and group reflection time. These trips are just as much about learning as they are about serving, so come ready to be transformed by the people you're going to serve.

We are now accepting applications for Spring Break Trip Participants

Application Form

Financial Assistance Form

Impact of Mountain Top Removal on Communities - Trip is Full!
Travel to the Big Laurel Learning Center and encounter the economic, social, and environmental impacts of Mountain-Top Removal coal mining on a rural community. Gain a truly unique insight into the daily life and culture of Appalachia from lifelong residents. Explore the beauty of the Appalachian Mountains through hiking and through stories told by residents who have been on these mountains their whole lives.
Location: Kermit, WV
Base Cost: $350

Work with At-Risk Women - Trip is Full!
Join the Florence Crittenton Agency as they strive to come alongside and help at-risk women in Knoxville, TN. Experience the courage of women who are determined to re-claim their lives from the grip of addiction, a harmful relationship, or poor life choices. Open your heart to the broken and hurt and come back changed.
Location: Knoxville, TN
*Open to women only
Base Cost: $350

Art, Agriculture, and Development in Rural Communities
You don’t have to go far on Spring Break to make a difference. Join Calvin’s very own Rob and Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma at *culture is not optional as they work to impact their own community of Three Rivers. Work to transform Huss School from an abandoned and forgotten piece of history to a new and vibrant community center. In the evenings stay at the Hermitage, a beautifully converted barn on 62 acres of rich, Southwest Michigan land.
Location: Three Rivers, MI
Base Cost: $350

Katrina Disaster Relief - Trips are Full!
Two groups will travel to the Gulf Coast to participate in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in partnership with the Bayou Baptist Association, a community that Calvin students have been visiting since the hurricane hit in 2005. Experience the environmental and cultural beauty of southern Louisiana while encountering the struggles faced by its residents every day. Learn about the impact that Hurricane Katrina and the recent oil spill has had on daily life in the region and think critically about what can be done to help.
Location: Houma, LA and a neighboring community
† CCE credit is an option
Base Cost: $350

Urban Neighborhood Ministry - Trip is Full!
Experience the natural beauty and historical relevance of Boston while having your eyes opened to the struggles of urban poverty that is suffocating much of its population. Join the Boston Project Ministries as they seek to understand the causes of this poverty and to respond as Christ would- with love and compassion through genuine relationship.
Location: Boston, MA
† CEE credit is an option
Base Cost: $450

Disaster Relief- CRWRC - Trip is Full!
Join the CRWRC as they continue their long-established work of coming alongside those affected by natural disaster. Travel to Biloxi, Mississippi and work to provide disaster relief to those still affected by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Do physical labor, interact with local residents, and learn about their experience and what it means to live through a natural disaster.
Location: Biloxi, MS
† CEE credit is an option
Base Cost: $350

Adults with Mental Disabilities-L’Arche USA - Trip is Full!
Travel to a L’Arche community in Mobile, AL and live life intentionally for a week. Join L’Arche as they live out their mission of joining mentally-disabled and mentally-able adults in mutually enriching intentional Christian community. Participate with the L’Arche residents in daily life activities as well as visit various agencies in their community that they are involved with.
Location: Mobile, AL
Base Cost: $350

Wilderness, Hiking, and Trail Maintenance - Trip is Full!
Travel to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park (the most visited National Park in the US) and participate in their Trails Forever maintenence program. Work with a park employee doing trail rehabilitation work, discuss why wilderness matters, and explore the impact that the park has on the surrounding community. You will also have the opportunity to take a day off from work and hike the famous Appalachian Trail. Enjoy God’s beauty in one of the oldest mountain/forest ranges in the world.
Location: Great Smoky Mountains National Parks
Base Cost: $350

Farming and Racial Reconciliation - Trip is full!
Live on a rural Georgia farm for week and learn what it means to farm in the US in the 21st century. Participate with Koinonia Farm (the birthplace of Habitat for Humanity), an intentionally multi-racial community, as they strive to connect their faith with the way they farm and the things they eat. Think critically about food and farming issues in the US and what the implications are for the choices that are made, both by industrial farms as well as by you and your food choices.
Location: Americus, GA
Base Cost: $350

Urban Revitalization
Live for a week in the heart of the Gateway to the West, learning about its many triumphs and prides as well as its issues with poverty and homelessness. Work with City Lights Ministries as they strive to understand the roots of the poverty around them and seek to do what they can to bring hope back to the city.
Location: St Louis, MO
† CCE credit is an option
Base Cost: $400

Christian Community Development
Travel to the birthplace of Rev. John Perkins and partner with Mendenhall Ministries, one of the founding members of the Christian Community Development Association. Founded in 1962 by Dr. Perkins in Mendenhall, MS (about 30 miles south of Jackson), during the turbulent civil rights years, Mendenhall Ministries is a model of community development. Students will assist in the building of a kitchen addition for their community center, construct additional housing for the use of future volunteers, remodel a computer lab, work on a 120-acre cooperative farm, and contribute to their housing ministry and health center. The week will include an afternoon in Jackson, MS, where the Calvin team will meet with Dr. Perkins and catch the vision of The John M. Perkins Foundation for Reconciliation and Development located in Jackson.
Location: Mendenhall, MS
† CCE credit is an option
Base Cost: $350

Housing and Arts as Urban Community Development - Trip is Full!
Serve alongside several organizations partnering in urban Christian community development in the Sandtown neighborhood of Baltimore. Worship at New Song Urban Church, help promote community arts programs with Jubilee Arts, and assist in a house-building project with Sandtown Habitat for Humanity.
Location: Baltimore, MD
† CCE credit is an option
Base Cost: $400