Some Penn State students opted to spend spring break traveling everywhere from Alabama to Guatemala -- not vacationing, but working to build houses, aid a recycling program and volunteer at Guatemalan libraries and hospitals, to name a few.

Several groups offer alternative spring break trips each year.

This year, some of the students' journeys included hurricane relief trips to New Orleans and Habitat for Humanity trips to various areas of the country as well as general community service-oriented trips to countries such as Guatemala and Haiti.

Students from a variety of Penn State campuses traveled to Santiago, Guatemala -- a small Mayan village on the shore of Lake Atitlan -- from March 9 until Sunday to perform volunteer work and tour the area.

Participants were assigned to different tasks, including painting rooms in a newly built library, working with children and performing a play and serving food at a local senior center.

Though the program is run through Penn State-Delaware County, three students from University Park participated in the program as well.

Sarah Dorward (junior-physics) was one of three University Park students who spent her time in Guatemala volunteering at a hospital.

When Dorward and the other students were not volunteering, they toured the area and went on excursions to nearby towns.

Dorward, who found out about the program through a friend, said she spent her free time exploring Guatemala City, visiting Mayan ruins, climbing an active volcano and horseback riding.

The notion of a vacation combined with community service was alluring to the participants, Dorward said.

"I liked the idea that it was volunteer and leisure, and it was better than getting wasted all of break," she said.

"I also did it to get insight to the culture."

Students may also receive credit for time spent abroad, Norma Notzold, one of the program's professors, said.

The program to Guatemala began about four years ago, when Notzold and colleague Barbara Daniel -- who currently teaches the related literature course -- traveled to Guatemala on vacation.

"As soon as I got off the plane, I said, 'I have to take my students here,' " Notzold said.

Other students chose to remain stateside while volunteering.

A group of 16 Penn State students made the 21-hour drive to Alabama with Habitat for Humanity to build storage sheds and can "houses," receptacles for residents to use to recycle.

"The recycling program in the town where we were staying got canceled, so we built houses for a plce for people to leave their aluminum cans," said Amy Stauffer (sophomore-agricultural science).

"We even painted one blue and white and put a Penn State logo on it."

Students generally worked from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. every day, and attended church services and went fishing in their free time.

Stauffer said she would recommend the trip to any student who was looking for a change.

" I am so excited I got to do this trip," Stauffer said.

"There were about 16 of us, and at the end of the trip I had 15 new best friends."