Needy Get the Break on Students’ New Spring Recess

This time last year she was relaxing in Europe. The year before that, her destination was Mexico.

This year, though, Carmina Crittenden headed a different direction while classmates were rushing off to spring break parties in places such as Palm Springs and Waikiki Beach.

She checked into a homeless shelter near downtown Los Angeles.

The 21-year-old USC art student is among a dozen students who are spending this week helping feed homeless women, refurbishing a health clinic for low-income children and working as classroom mentors for sixth-graders at an inner-city school.

“I feel I’ll have a debt to this community for the rest of my life,” said Crittenden, a junior from San Rafael.

The USC group is part of a growing crowd of college students who sign up for public service assignments instead of signing on for beach resort blowouts during the traditional spring break.

Another 51 USC students are spending the week at a Navajo Indian reservation near Bluff, Utah, where they are helping repair senior citizens’ homes and convert an abandoned jail into a library.

About 8,000 college students nationwide are taking alternative spring break trips this year, according to leaders of Break Away, a Vanderbilt University group that helps coordinate public service projects for schools.

Locally, UCLA and Occidental College have organized work projects. Stanford University students participated in a Pasadena-based program last week.

The USC program began two years ago when a small group of students volunteered to spend the week at the Utah reservation. Last year’s Los Angeles riots prompted officials to expand the program to the inner city, said project coordinator Martin Gonzalez.

Students are staying at the 66-bed Sunshine Mission for Women on Hoover Street, near the USC campus. They are sleeping on the floor to avoid taking beds from those who need them.

“I was shocked the shelter was so close to school. I’d never noticed it before,” said Catherine Pedrosa, 20, a junior from Walnut. “It makes you feel so ignorant about the community you live in.”

During the week, students repainted the waiting room and 10 examination rooms at St. John’s Well Child Center near downtown Los Angeles and worked with Los Angeles Conservation Corps members on a beautification project at Norwood Elementary School.

They also helped with writing and art projects for the school’s 59 sixth-graders and invited Councilman Mike Hernandez to the campus Thursday for a question-and-answer session with youngsters.

“They made me realize I should think more about the positive things in my neighborhood than the negatives--the graffiti and carjackings,” said 12-year-old Myeshia Jones.

USC students said they are ending their spring break today by thinking about the positive things in their neighborhood, too.

“This week my friends are on Catalina, in the Florida Keys, Laughlin, Cabo San Lucas,” said Kelley Berglund, 22, of Jackson Hole, Wyo. “This was an opportunity for me to learn about the city.”

Sharon Nazitto, 21, of Long Island, N.Y., agreed: “I’ve been at USC for four years and I felt like I still didn’t know the community.”

Their stint in the homeless shelter was particularly eye-opening, said Arianna Arias, 23, of San Diego. “I thought the people staying there would be derelicts off the street. But there are people there who know so much,” she said.

Senior Ali Zad, 22, of Santa Barbara said he postponed employment interviews on the East Coast and paid an $80 fee to spend spring break in the inner city. He said he is glad he did.

“I’m really optimistic about a lot of things about L.A. now,” he said. “There are lot of good people here.”