Students Give Back Through Alternative Spring Break

Over their spring break, 14 SCAD students collaborated in a “trash to treasure” outreach project to give back to the community.

The project was SCAD’s annual “Alternative Spring Break” (ASB). Often, ASB takes participating students all around the south-east U.S., but this year they stayed right in Savannah.

The project team spent the first day of break cleaning trash off the bank of the Savannah River with local organization Clean Coast, where they picked up a total of 500 pounds of trash. The fine artists in the group spent the rest of the week creating sellable art pieces from the collected trash, while others re-designed the logo and brand imaging – and even created an educational comic book – for Clean Coast.

Photo courtesy of Louis Baker

Clean Coast is an organization dedicated to maintaining Savannah’s coastlines to keep them clean and healthy for the animal species that live there. The art pieces created through Alternative Spring Break will be auctioned off to raise funds for Clean Coast. The students created multiple branding and logo options which they presented to Clean Coast, along with examples of potential merchandise, educational materials

In addition to being able to give back to their community, Alternative Spring Break provides students with a chance to gain professional experience. Louis Baker, SCAD Professor and ASB director, spoke about the program’s collaborative nature, saying, “We always have a variety of majors and I think it’s really great for the students to learn to work with people from other backgrounds and perspectives, just like they will in real-world careers.” This year was no exception, as students from many majors, including graphic design, sequential art, jewelry design and film and television, participated in Alternative Spring Break.

Every student involved in Alternative Spring Break walked away from the project with a new portfolio piece, whether it was a Clean Coast logo, a piece of recycled art, or the project video. Baker believes these pieces have particular merit because, “the students get to create real work that goes to a real client, it isn’t an imaginary classroom assignment.” He also said, “It’s an amazing resume entry…A real conversation starter with potential employers. I think they want to see people willing to do community outreach and service.”

ASB recruits primarily through SCAD Serve, building up what Baker calls “the core team,” consisting of grad students and upperclassmen, before seeking students outside Serve. Baker emphasized that underclassmen are also encouraged to participate and said, “It’s a great opportunity for a mentorship between the older and younger students, I see those relationships grow a lot.”

The core team is selected primarily by a student’s major and interests, because the team requirements change based on the project. In years past, Alternative Spring Break has gone everywhere from an historic opera house in Alabama, to Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Florida. They have worked in Savannah previously, as well, on a project for the Civil Rights Museum.

Baker explained that the project and client selection process various each year. He said, “Everybody has connections and, usually, students come to us with ideas from their hometowns or places they’re passionate about and we’re able to build really cool projects and connections from there.”