A quirky alternative to sunny spring breaks

While most students seek out lands with sun-a-plenty during Spring Break, some feel compelled to retreat to an environment that stimulates the mind, body and soul by providing an escape from the monotony of everyday life.

This is just the type of trip 30 college students experienced when they traveled to the Ozarks to beat some drums, do some dancing and connect with the nature that surrounded them. In case you didn't realize, this soul-searching opportunity was mentioned in the classified section of The Chronicle during the weeks preceding Spring Break.

The five day trip was sponsored by the Renaissance Universal Club of the University of North Carolina at Asheville in an attempt to provide a means of self-enlightenment for those involved, says Janet Dorf, office manager of Alternative Spring Break, an organization within the club. Students from colleges all over the country traveled to the Retreat Center in Well Springs, Missouri to "create a renaissance in all spheres of life-physical, mental, spiritual, emotional," adds Shanti Dorf, the co-founder of the Renaissance Universal Club at UNC-Asheville. The vacation included service projects such as local highway cleanup and visits to the nearby nursing home, where the students explored their instinctual theatrical ability through spontaneous acts of comedy to entertain the residents.

Students got their daily exercise by participating in yoga classes and hiking through the beautiful hills of the Ozarks. They also gained experience in such activities as cooking, martial arts and even journalism during daily workshops. The students were taught methods of caring for the environment in a meeting with an ecologist; the ecologist taught them how to test water for harmful chemicals and how to be more aware of the delicate environment around them, Janet says.

Shanti, who was raised in a family which practiced yoga meditation, ate vegetarian meals and instilled a strong sense of the environmental world, says she started the alternative spring break program because she "wanted to meet people who had similar interests."

Part of this year's program entailed a ceremony of a "Council of All Beings," an animal and environmental sensitivity workshop. The purpose of the workshop is to get people in tune with the environment and with animals, Shanti explains.

Before the daily exercises in yoga meditation, the group performed the Kiirtan, a spiritual Indian dance that helps one prepare to meditate. The Kiirtan attempts to remove the individual from the distractions of the external environment and helps him to focus internally, Shanti says. The universal mantra "ba ba nam kevalam," meaning "love is all there is," is chanted during the dance to help individuals with their internalization.

Cathy Wirth, a freshman at Swarthmore College, said that she went on the alternative spring break, not because she had a strong desire for the alternative sounds of Superchunk or Korn, but rather, because she, "really needed to step back, take time, and think about myself... It gave me time to appreciate myself and look inside myself."