PBHA runs two spring break programs--Habitat for Humanity, as well as Alternative Spring Break (ASB), according to ASB director Sarah D. Kalloch '00.

Kalloch says the 24 students participating in ASB this year traveled in PBHA vans to their two destinations--Cumberland, Md. and Big Ugly Creek, W.Va.

According to Kalloch, the Cumberland group worked with an organization called the Interfaith Consortium which buys run-down houses, renovates them, and then puts them up for rental at an affordable cost. The 13 students in Cumberland, whose trip lasted from Sunday to Friday, helped with this renovation process.

In Big Ugly Creek, 11 students renovated a community center, tutored children, and learned about educational, labor and environmental issues from community leaders, Kalloch said.

According to former ASB director Jennifer A. Burney '99, ASB was founded in 1991 with the dual mission of "giving people something to do" and "promoting cultural awareness and community service over spring break."

Kalloch says ASB has made previous visits to Cumberland and "Big Ugly" to "create real and lasting connections with the community" and to "get to know the social, economic and political issues in the community."

Like ASB, Habitat for Humanity sent out two groups, with eight people traveling to Washington, D.C. and seven to Baltimore.

In Baltimore, Esquith says participants "renovated old...houses in a tough neighboorhood," demolishing and putting up new walls and floors. Esquith says Habitat arranged for their lodging at a church.

Esquith says he thinks people chose to spend their break doing demolition work because "it was cheap and you're helping people."

But, Esquith says, the Baltimore group did spend some time vacationing, going to a concert and visiting Washington, D.C.

OCS Has Empty Slots

According to Associate Director of the Office of Career Services (OCS) Nancy Saunders, who runs the Harvard Career Internships Program, the program is 15 years old and was the "initiative of a subcommittee of the Harvard Alumni Association human resources committee."

Saunders says the Alumni Association "felt students needed the opportunity to get a broader perspective of prospective professions while they were undergrads." She added that it is "a good opportunity for alumni to interact with undergrads."

Over the years the program has expanded to include internship opportunities not only with alumni, but also with friends of the Harvard community.

This year the program offered more than 90 internships in the U.S. and Canada and placed 68 interns--about 70 percent of the applicants were accepted.