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APSU’s Center for Service-Learning & Community Engagement volunteers in three states, Guatemala during spring semester

Austin Peay State University - APSUClarksville, TN – Over the past few months, several groups of Austin Peay State University students spent their time volunteering in three states and two countries on Alternative Break Trips through the University’s Center for Service-Learning & Community Engagement.

Collectively, Austin Peay students completed approximately 650 hours of community service.

Austin Peay students do community service in Guatemala during Spring Break.
Austin Peay students do community service in Guatemala during Spring Break.


From March 4th-11th, Austin Peay students spent their spring breaks volunteering near and far, as a group of five students and one staff member traveled to Nashville, working with food banks, community gardens and urban farms.

Meanwhile, a second group of students traveled to Lafayette, Louisiana. Nine students and one staff member spent their week volunteering with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, rebuilding homes devastated by major flooding in August 2015.

In May, a group of seven students and one faculty member traveled to Clarkston, Georgia, working with the local refugee population and focusing on civil rights and nonviolence training through the Something New organization.

Austin Peay’s Center for Service-Learning & Community Engagement continued its mission of serving abroad as well as locally in May, as a group of seven students and two staff members traveled to Antigua, Guatemala to work with a nonprofit organization, Maximo Nivel. Spending May 13th-20th in the Central American country, the group worked on construction projects for the local fire station. During their down time, APSU students learned more about Guatemalan culture, visiting coffee plantations, learning to make their own chocolate and climbing a volcano.

The Alternative Break program is organized by the Center for Service-Learning & Community Engagement at APSU. Through a written application, students are selected to participate in a variety of service projects throughout the country that are organized by student leaders and faculty and staff advisors. A total of eight trips launched throughout the 2016-2017 academic year, during the fall, winter, spring and summer.  

For more information on how to get involved, students should visit www.apsu.edu/volunteer

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