Spring Break Trips

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.

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.

Trip is only open to women

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.

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.

How grateful are you for what you have? Find out by joining World Renew (formerly known as CRWRC) as they continue a long-established history of coming alongside those affected by natural disaster. Students this year will be doing reconstruction work from wind and water damage from Hurricane Irene. Learn about the long-lasting effects that natural disasters have on families and communities: such things cannot be fixed overnight! In addition to reconstruction work, students will interact with local residents and learn about their experience and what it means to live through a natural disaster.

Trip is only open to KHvR residents

Travel to 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. Work may also include yardwork and spring cleaning.

Travel to the Great Smoky 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.

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.

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.

CCE credit is an option

Travel to the birthplace of Rev. John Perkins and partner with The Spencer Perkins Center. Calvin students will help the Spencer Perkins Center fulfill their mission "to train and equip a new generation of indigenous leaders who are driven by the love of God to pass on the torch of reconciliation, community and youth development in West Jackson."

CCE credit is an option

Serve alongside several organizations partnering in urban Christian community development in the Sandtown neighborhood of Baltimore. Students will partner with Newborn Holistic Ministries and help promote community arts programs with Jubilee Arts and work with Martha's Place, a women's recovery program.

CCE credit is an option

Travel to the Four Corners region of New Mexico and learn about Native American culture while visiting various high schools and promoting college access to diverse populations. In conjunction with the office of Pre-College Programs, prepare and execute a weekend conference for high school students to explore the possibility of higher education. This trip will involve a representing Calvin College through public speaking. Applicants will be screened by Pre-College Programs staff and those selected will participate in additional training and planning prior to the trip

Work with The Pittsburgh Project and join in their mission to love on the community. Work will be focused on home repair for vulnerable homeowners in the inner city. Students will also engage and explore the urban culture of Pittsburgh.

Break the preconception that Africa is the only place where you can do work projects! Work with Sunshine Gospel Ministries in the windy city of Chicago, where students will be doing construction projects through Sunshine's Bridge Builders Program on buildings in inner city Chicago. Students will learn about homeless and hear personal stories as they engage in an impoverished neighborhood. Come back with a renewed perspective of the blessings that you have.

Trip is only open to RvD residents

CCE credit is an option