For many college students, spring break means vacation, trips to the beach and sunshine. For others, spring break is simply a time to spend back home with family, away from the busy noise of the school week. However, members of sports teams and other groups at Waynesburg University who will be using spring break as a time to serve.

Members of the track team, for example, will be traveling to Wilmington, North Carolina, for a mission trip over spring break. Participating members will stay on campus until March 3.

Isaac Orahood, sophomore education major and member of the tack team, does not get to go home often, being from Pymatuning Valley, Ohio. Although Orahood is missing out on an opportunity to see his family, he is excited to help out on the mission trip.

“I’m kind of disappointed because I don’t get to see my family that much,” Orahood said. “But I’m looking forward to helping people because we get to help people with housing and we get to different jobs so I’m excited for that.”

T.J. Hyland, sophomore criminal justice major and Bonner scholar, will also be attending a service trip over spring break. Instead of working in the United States, Hyland is going to the Dominican Republic with Wine to Water  as a part of a trip for all Waynesburg students. Hyland believes there are benefits to serving over break.

“The importance of students serving over spring break is to show that they are willing to spend their free time doing something that will benefit more than just themselves,” Hyland said. “It’s a way to get out and experience something while making a difference.”

Orahood is familiar with campus procedure during breaks. He is also a member of the football team and stays on campus over fall break during the season. He said campus is a much different place without the busy movement of students during a normal school week.

“This fall over break we had football during the break so we had to stay here during the week,” Orahood said. “It was pretty interesting because there’s really not a lot of people here so you kind of have to go to different dorms that you normally wouldn’t go to and you hang out with different people.”

The application to stay on campus during a break has been made easier thanks in part to Matthew Pioch, director of Housing. Pioch said roughly 150 students will stay on campus this spring break for various reasons. Orahood said the process is made even easier for athletes by their coaches who complete the form for members of their respective teams.

“With sports we normally don’t have to fill out the request form [to stay on campus over spring break] because the head coach usually fills that out,” Orahood said. “So that part was pretty easy.”

As for what Orahood will be doing with his two days on campus before leaving for the service trip, he said he will try to unwind and appreciate his time on campus without having to study or go to class.

“I’ll be here this weekend and I’ll probably just watch movies and relax before we head out to North Carolina.”