Every year, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (SMWC) students can trade their free time during breaks from school for a less common alternative: service.
Seven students are gearing up for the Campus Ministry-sponsored alternative fall break trip to Knoxville, Tenn., from Oct. 11-17. Students will work again this year with the Metro Drug Coalition of Knoxville, Tenn., which ministers to recovering addicts.
The students will assist the organization in areas of most need, said Tim Tesmer, SMWC campus minister. Last year, students helped fill emergency medical kits with Narcan, attended a music therapy session and listened to stories from people receiving services.
New this year, students will also spend three days volunteering with Catholic Charities of East Tennessee before they visit with the homeless living in the area.
“This really is the eye-opener for the students,” Tesmer said. “They’re actually going to be looking at people who live on the streets. They’re not a statistic or a hypothetical. They’re real, live, flesh-and-blood human beings. It’s where students realize that homelessness is an issue that actual people experience every day.”
This will be junior Lucy Howard’s second alternative break trip at The Woods, after serving with Campus Ministry in Jacksonville, Fla., last spring break. She said she couldn’t pass up another life-changing student experience this fall.
The trip will be a chance for freshman Kyleigh Moore, a P-12 Mild Intervention Special Education major from Terre Haute, to combine her passions for travel and volunteering.
“I have never participated in an alternative break trip before; however, I did participate in C.A.M.P at The Woods and traveled to the Galapagos Islands with the College,” she said. “I feel the trip will help me feel more connected with my friends and the College, in general.”
All students are invited to participate in the alternative break trips offered in the fall and spring semesters. Past trips have taken students to West Virginia, Houston, Ontario and Nashville.
Plans for the 2026 alternative spring break trip will start later this fall.