04/10/2006

A Fix for Spring Break Dangers
Campus Group Offers Positive Peer Pressure and Alternatives to Sex and Alcohol Binging

GREELEY, Colo -- There was little to comfort and much to alarm parents in the American Medical Association’s March 8, 2006, report on alcohol, sex, and spring break college trips. A survey taken as part of the AMA’s initiative to reduce high-risk behavior on college campuses revealed what a lot of parents already knew or suspected: The party-hearty annual ritual of their youth has become downright dangerous.

"Spring break is broken," according to J. Edward Hill MD, president of the AMA, for whom sunburn and drowning dangers have been bumped off the radar by worries about "sexually transmitted diseases, blackouts and violence."

This spring break, however, the parents of thousands of student members of FOCUS are breathing a sigh of relief. FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, has found a way to harness youthful energy in constructive spring break projects. The group is one of the pioneers of the movement to what is called "alternative spring break."

Founded in 1998 by Curtis Martin, FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, is a national outreach to college campuses, both secular and Catholic schools. FOCUS-sponsored spring break mission trips have seen students serving the poor, teaching children in foreign countries, building houses and engaging in other projects that are a far cry from the sex and alcohol binges of their fellow students. Parents also welcome the alternative spring break idea.

FOCUS places campus staff member who are recent graduates at colleges and universities to befriend students and form a community with powerful, positive peer pressure. Although FOCUS is Catholic all students are welcome to attend the wide range of camps events that the staff provides – everything from small group Bible studies to BBQs, ski trips, and sporting events.

What FOCUS offers is a combination of socialization and one-on-one mentoring in life skills. Thinking of others this year was top priority this year during Spring Break. Alex Pandolfo, a Campus Director at the University of Northern Colorado, talked about the opportunity to help others in need on a recent ‘alternative spring break’ to New Orleans. "Any time we are able to see and fulfill a need that others have, it is a special gift from God. Each person we helped was so grateful. I prayed with each person and they cried because our work meant so much to them." Reaching out to others is an idea that many parents welcome.

The AMA recommends a policy change favoring alternative spring breaks and the restricting of alcohol advertising on campuses, and colleges are increasingly seeking to steer students in the direction of these safer alternatives. Thousands of American parents will find out after spring break this year that their sons and daughters made unwise – sometimes deadly -- spring break choices. A switch to the sort of approach FOCUS uses is just what the doctor ordered.