A trip to Ghana as a Fulbright Scholar in 2019 sparked in Houssaynatou Barry a desire to advocate for marginalized communities—and a want to share her transformative experience with others. 

In March, the international peace and conflict resolution student did just that, leading 12 Eagles on a nine-day trip to Ghana through AU’s Alternative Break Program. Barry, SIS/MA ’23, worked with the Center for Community Engagement and Service for eight months to craft an agenda rooted in social justice that underscores the university’s commitment to experiential learning.  

“I wanted students to experience exactly what I did a few years ago,” said Barry, the child of Guinean immigrants, who grew up on Staten Island. “The alt break provided the opportunity to lead and facilitate this unique trip to experience another culture. Students got to work with organizations that are trying to better Ghana through education and community building—not through political elites, but through people.” 

Barry’s trip is one of five alternative breaks offered for 60 students this academic year. Students also traveled on spring break to Austin, Texas, to learn about the history of period poverty, abortion rights, and contraception, and to Honduras to examine community-led advocacy around clean water, environmental conservation, and climate justice.  

The program began in 1999 when then University Chaplain Joe Eldridge, SIS/MA ’81, who previously lived in Honduras, organized a spring break trip for a dozen students in the wake of Hurricane Mitch. The goal: to learn how a nation rebuilds itself.  

Over the last decade, students have gone on 67 trips to 23 countries and 20 domestic locations. The visits have spanned five continents. Students have worked with partners still dealing with the lasting effects of land mines and chemical agents from the Vietnam War, learned about collective trauma and reconciliation following genocide in Bosnia and Rwanda, and discovered how to harness the power of young people in democratic development in Uzbekistan. 

Students cover program costs, although travel grants are available through two dedicated need-based funds. First-generation students and those from historically underrepresented groups receive preference.

“These are unique opportunities for students to take agency in building their vision of a high-impact program that empowers their peers to engage in ethical solidarity with communities in the US and abroad,” said Arianna Lopez, SOE/MA ’18, assistant director of global learning and leadership and point person for the Alternative Breaks Program. “Participants are not only challenged to critically reflect on their identity and role within systems of inequity as they meet with members of their host community, but to transform this knowledge into action and advocacy.” 

Barry, a former Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Fellow at the State Department, drew inspiration for the alt break from her experience as a Fulbright scholar in Ghana, where she studied women’s educational development. The trip—which focused on the role of higher education institutions in social movements—included school visits; meetings with cultural groups and nonprofits, like the Girls Education Initiative of Ghana; and a poignant visit to the coastal castles that operated during the Atlantic slave trade. 

“The site visits were emotional and challenging, but the students brought reverent and respectful attitudes and left with greater knowledge of the history of the slave trade in this region,” wrote Abigail McDonough, SIS/BA ’24, on the website created by students on the trip. 

Barry said even with the detailed planning, she anticipated hiccups. There were also a few unexpected opportunities, like when the group got the chance to meet with Ghana’s education minister, Yaw Osei Adutwum, who went to the University of Southern California and lived in the state for 26 years before returning home. 

“He started as a janitor in California and worked so hard to get where he is,” Barry said. “It was great to speak with someone in the country’s leadership.” 

Although most trips took place over spring break, there’s one alt break still on the calendar this school year. 

Georgia Calimeres, SIS/MA ’24, is readying her group to visit San Juan, Ciales, and Adjuntas, Puerto Rico in May. Students on Calimeres’s trip will engage with grassroots organizations that are working to reclaim Puerto Rico’s power, explore the complex relationship between Puerto Rico and the US, and assist with reconstruction efforts.  

“We’re exploring Puerto Rico’s fight for autonomy and representation through the lens of neocolonialism,” said Calimeres, who has studied, visited, or worked in Costa Rica, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico. “Puerto Rico isn’t represented in the US government. They didn’t receive the same aid in the wake of Hurricane Fiona that states have received following disasters. We’re going to explore that dynamic. But we also have volunteer work and construction projects, so we’re diving into immersive learning.”