UMass Amherst Alternative Spring Break Trip to Cape Verde Celebrates 13 Years of Service

Following a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual Cape Verdean Student Alliance (CVSA) service-learning trip to Cape Verde returned this year, marking its 13th year with plans to continue in 2023.

For this year’s trip, a group of 12 students and three staff leaders—including Sid Ferreira, special assistant to Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life Brandi Hephner LaBanc; Lydia Washington, senior director of student organizational development and management; and Debora Ferreira, associate counsel for the Office of the General Counsel—traveled to the Praia.

There, CVSA met with community leaders; spent time in schools and community centers; learned to create pottery using native materials from local women working in a co-op; and visited Tarrafal, a concentration camp for political prisoners that has been transformed into the Museum of Resistance.

“The whole idea has always been to introduce our students to a country which has had history in the U.S. since the early 1800s,” says Ferreira. “The trip is multi-pronged. It’s community service; it’s a cultural enrichment program; it’s about students knowing the history, the food, the music, the politics, the educational system of Cape Verde. It's connection.”

The CVSA alternative spring break began in 2009 and has been led by Ferreira ever since.

“The trip is a way of exposing UMass students to a different culture, a different country. For a lot of people, Cape Verde is not part of their ‘life itinerary,’” says Ferreira. “Everybody wants to go to France, to Mexico, to Spain, to Italy, but not usually Cape Verde. It’s fascinating to see their reaction to being in this country that a year or two ago they didn’t even know existed.”

To determine the itinerary for the alternative spring break trip, CVSA partners with Cape Verdean NGOs, local leaders, entrepreneurs, educators and even UMass Amherst alumni.

“We don’t tell people what we’re going to do for them,” Ferreira says. “We ask the communities what they need, and that guides us.”

The annual trip is focused mostly on education and connection with emphasis on an exchange of knowledge between UMass students and Cape Verdean community members.

“Some of the children we meet have never interacted with anyone from the diaspora, so it’s meaningful to for them to have students come and spend this time with them,” he says. “We do a lot of English songs and teach them lots of English words because of that curiosity. For us, it may look minimal, but for the kids especially, it’s huge.”

A visit to the islands can be particularly meaningful to students who are of Cape Verdean descent.

“When we land, students always say, ‘Sid, I feel like I’m home.’ And I say, ‘That’s because you are home. You’re from the African diaspora, so this feels like home,’” Ferreira explains. “To feel that warmth of the continent, it’s important.”

The service trip is open to any student who is part of the CVSA. In addition, students should be active participants within the organization and participate in community service projects, either in Amherst or in their home community. Once that criterion is met, students can apply to attend the alternative spring break trip, the next of which will happen in 2023.

“We wouldn’t be able to do it without the support within the university—from our Vice Chancellor, Brandi Hephner LaBanc, from the International Programs Office, from Student Engagement and Involvement (SEI) and the Advocacy cluster in student affairs, from the chancellor himself. The community supports us,” Ferreira says. “It’s a UMass thing and it’s been really great to be part of this adventure.”