Heidi Pierson’s college breaks are never typical.

Last summer she taught underprivileged children at a day camp in Tulsa, Okla., and spent her spring break on a mission trip in Mexico.

“It’s better to spend my time focusing on others than focusing on myself,” the Kansas University sophomore said.

When KU students cut loose for the winter break, Pierson will be off on another adventure, helping inner-city kids in Chicago.

About 40 KU students, including Pierson, are passing up the chance to laze about this break, opting instead for one of five service-learning trips organized by KU’s Alternative Breaks program. The students will volunteer Jan. 6-13.

Some will work in a soup kitchen and distribute safe-sex packets for the AIDS Foundation in Houston. Some will help staff a Florida resort that caters to children with life-threatening illnesses.

Another group will head to Chicago to assist Teach For America teachers in inner-city schools. Other groups will volunteer for The Nature Conservancy of Mississippi and United Cerebral Palsy of Metropolitan Dallas.

KU’s Alternative Breaks program is 11 years old. It attracts the civic-minded, the adventurous and those looking for a new experience at a relatively low cost. The program costs $225 per person and less for students who serve as leaders for the groups. It covers the students’ transportation, housing and meals.

Students are selected through the program and then required to attend the Special Projects in the Community course. If students complete course requirements, they can earn up to two hours of college credit.

“We have a lot of people who get hooked and keep doing it over and over again,” said Katie Jahnke, a KU junior and program co-director.

Those who participate come back with vivid tales of forays into new areas and encounters with people from different walks of life.

KU junior Natalia Malesa spent one break working for the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, D.C. She volunteered at homeless shelters and spent nights on the city’s streets.

She recalled trekking through the city in search of food and mimicking the life of people who live on the streets.

“You’d eat breakfast and then you’d walk two hours to go eat lunch across town and then you’d walk two hours to go eat dinner and then you’d walk two hours to find a place where the police wouldn’t kick you awake in the middle of the night,” she said. “It’s kind of a full-time job being homeless.”

Jahnke spent a break assisting Teach for America in a school of primarily immigrant children in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.

She recalled talking with one class of seventh-graders about college and their plans for the future.

“One of the kids : he said, ‘I just want to be a drug dealer,'” Jahnke recalled. “It was just really sad. Some of the kids were just great kids, but you could tell that they had rough lives.”

Some participants said they prefer projects where they can see the progress they’re making, such as planting a tree or constructing a fence or building. Others, like Pierson, want to reach out, to help a child or others, and do something, no matter how small the gesture.

“In my opinion, even if you make a difference in one child’s life, it’s worth it,” she said. “And you’re never going to know what type of thing you did to make a difference. But I truly believe that sometime down the road that kid will remember you or remember something you said, and it will help them. It will motivate them just to know that people care.”