Claudia Garcia
It only took one alternative winter break trip to Guatemala to hook Claudia Garcia. A senior music industry major, Garcia took her first alternative winter break in 2006 and soon after decided to become a trip coordinator at the Volunteer Center.
“My first interest is Guatemala is where I was born,” explains Garcia, who has been on three alternative break trips. “Being there as a volunteer was new for me, and I really enjoyed it. The experience has been very powerful, and I wanted to give that to other students. It’s a trip that has meant a lot to me during my college experience.”
As a trip coordinator, Garcia interviews students who apply to go on the trips, secures overseas insurance for participants, collects passport information, organizes meetings about the trip and partners with Habitat for Humanity to organize community projects in Guatemala. Brick by brick, digging hole after hole, the students help build about three houses on the 21-day trips.
Last winter students painted a local elementary school and worked to get school supplies donated to the school. “A teacher at the school said that because we got so many donations a lot of students who left the school were able to come back because now they had supplies,” Garcia says. “It was a meaningful experience; it’s hard to put into words.”
Garcia said coordinating the trips can be hectic and takes a lot of work. Her busy schedule also includes an internship at an art program for low-income families and part-time work as an office assistant at the Thornton School of Music.
Although she is a music industry major with minors in photography and sociology, Garcia wants to become a social worker. Next fall she will begin classes at the USC School of Social Work.
“It changes something in everyone,” Garcia says about the trips. “It changes your life in a very nice way. My interest went from music to being interested in community development.”
When she isn’t busy with work and school, Garcia enjoys photography, movies, talking to friends and reading.