Students have volunteered in locations like New Orleans and Savannah, Ga. On every trip they do something different so that students can gain varied experience.
Photo courtesy of USF
By Julia Birdsall
In Spring 2022, freshman Lilly Figueroa Rodriguez made the decision to spend her spring break on the Leadership and Student Organization’s (LSO) alternative break trip, volunteering in New Orleans.
This decision changed the trajectory of her college experience.
LSO’s alternative break trip began 15 years ago as a way to get students interested in volunteering and helping their community.
Typically, they travel out of state for a week and work with one or more organizations in the area they stay in.
During this time, they get to learn more about the issues that plague different communities and actively work with others to assist with said issues.
Many students return to the University of Florida St. Petersburg and rise to leadership roles on campus because of their experiences on the trip, said LSO coordinator Kasey Szel.
“So far every time we’ve done a trip, a student who has gone on the trip has become a student leader the next year,” she said.
This was the case for Rodriguez, who told The Crow’s Nest that during her first trip there was conflict between students and trip organizers, so she became a mediator between the two sides.
“That made me realize that if the students trusted me to hold all that information and to see their voices and advocate for them…I might be good at being a leader,” Rodriguez said. “Then I became a leader.”
Rodriguez, now an alum, currently works as LSO’s student program specialist and helps curate the trip for current and future USF students.
Environmental science and policy junior Liv Doura was on a similar track.
Doura was a student the first time she went on the trip in Spring 2025. The experience inspired her to seek out a position with LSO.
“I really loved the work that they were doing,” she said, “and the whole message of reaching out into other communities and helping where help is needed.”
Doura is now the student program leader and also plays a role in organizing the alternative spring break trip.
Szel, Rodriguez and Doura have recently begun to expand the trip; a second one is available in the Fall semester.
This will give students an opportunity to get varied volunteering experience throughout the school year and learn about a wider range of social issues.
“Through the trip, a lot of students realize things that matter to them, [which] they didn’t know before they felt so passionate about,” Rodriguez said.
All three interviewees hope to see more involvement from new students in the coming years, as it has a lot of personal benefits.
On top of this, they said, it is a very affordable way for students to spend their spring break.
The trip can range in price depending on the itinerary and location, but LSO typically tries to make it free of cost for students.
“I know that a lot of students live very far away, and getting home can be a lot of money, and staying can be a lot of money as well,” Doura said. “Students who just want to do something cheap and fun and impactful for spring break or winter break, I think this is an amazing option for them.”
This spring, it is $50, according to Doura.
This is because students will be making the trip to Asheville, N.C. to work in a local soup kitchen.
Doura explained that LSO decided to do this type of volunteering because they found that food insecurity was a big social issue in North Carolina, and they tailor the type of volunteering they do to the area.
This trip will be particularly impactful, she hopes, because students will be able to directly interact with the people they’re working to help.
“We’re going to actually get to talk to the community members and eat lunch with them and do little interviews with them,” she told The Crow’s Nest. “We’re going to actually be talking with the people that we’re helping and getting involved with that, which I think is so special and important because I feel like that’s really what it’s all about, you know?”
This is the type of experience that can impact students beyond the scope of the trip and help them become more aware of issues within their own area and get involved in finding solutions.
“We volunteer at different organizations, and you see how differently they’re organized and then you start building your opinions and what is more efficient or what’s good and whatnot,” Rodriguez said. “I think that’s a side that other students have taken where they went on these trips and we had many discussions about how differently these organizations are organized and how that impacts…the community.”
Szel echoed this sentiment, stating that students have learned how to set up clubs at USF because of their experience on the alternative break trips.
“Bulls That Serve, that student organization started from students who went on the trip,” Szel said. “It started because they went on this trip and they were really inspired to do more service in our community.”
Rodriguez feels that this is one of the many benefits that students can get from attending the trip.
“This is one of those trips that, no matter who you are or what you do, when you go you will for sure get something out of it,” she said. “It’ll be different for everyone, but…the position in which you are put is so vulnerable and out of your comfort zone that you will take something out of it, yes or yes.”
