Middlebury

 

Middlebury Alternative Break Trips (MAlt)

About MAlt

MAlt is Middlebury’s alternative break program. We provide affordable, service-learning alternatives to traditional February break activities. The goal of the trips is to engage Middlebury students with outside communities in order to share, provide service, and learn about the systems that shape community realities around the world. The trips are drug and alcohol free and provide a great chance to do community service that is very different from the work that can be done while school is in session.

MAlt includes three domestic and two international trips each February break.  Past destinations have included Boston, New York City, El Paso, San Francisco, Miami, New Mexico, Cherokee Nation, New Orleans, Utah, Washington D.C., Mexico, Costa Rica, Dominica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic. There are also October and spring break “mini MAlts,” which involve three or four days of service here in Vermont.

Each MAlt trip typically has a total of 10-12 participants, including two well-qualified and trained leaders, all Middlebury students. MAlt has a needs-blind acceptance policy and does fund-raising throughout the year to make sure that anyone who needs financial assistance can participate.

Get Involved

Each April, MAlt accepts leader applications and selects leaders and trips for the following year by early May. In the fall, keep an eye out for participant applications to join a MAlt trip.

For more information, contact MAlt adviser Ashley Calkins in the Center for Education in Action, in Adirondack House.

News and Resources

Watch this video (below) of MAlt 2012 participants’ visit to the  Rocky Branch Community Center to join in a traditional music night and share their own musical heritage. This MAlt trip went to Tennessee to participate in service with the Cherokee Nation and Smoky Mountains National Park.