ABSTRACT
Reorientation is where the rubber meets the road for alternative breaks, when students take their experience on a trip, reorganize, and apply lessons to their lives in their home communities. Through reorientation, alternative breakers plan for life after the trip so their break experiences have long-term impact both in the participants’ lives and communities and on the social issue they are addressing. During reorientation students, as active citizens, organize and join small groups, taking their new skills and translating them to community work. Successful reorientation can happen in many ways: local community engagement and service, political advocacy, changes in daily life choices, commitment to philanthropy, a change in academic major, organizing with others for change, or a shift in career path. Alternative break participants are often disoriented from the experience of being immersed in a different community, culture, or lived experience.
