Volunteer while vacationing this winter break

you survived coming to college and not knowing people, you can probably handle seven days with 11 strangers. If they are willing to volunteer their time to help others, chances are high that they may actually be friendly.

Volunteer Vacations are the perfect option for people that don not have enough time to volunteer during the semester. It is easy to plan on setting aside some time once a week, but once classes start, all that free time suddenly vanishes. How many Tufts students did some type of community service in high school? Chances are the answer is many. How many of those same students continue to do community service? Chances are, probably not all of them. Prove to others, and more importantly to yourself, that you did not volunteer in high school just so that you could get into college.

It is also easy at Tufts to forget that there is a world outside of our campus. VVs give students an affordable way to spend a significant amount of time getting to know a different community. This year, winter VV trips are going to New York City, rural Pennsylvania, a camp in Ohio, and an Appalachian coal-mining town in West Virginia. Trip participants will get a chance to meet local residents and experience a slice of life outside the Boston metro area.

To all of the freshmen: VVs are a great way to find a new group of people to spend time with once you get back to Tufts. It is also a great way to break into volunteering at Tufts if you have been too overwhelmed to get started yet. And trust me, I know it seems exciting to be heading home for winter break. It will be awesome. Until, that is, you realize that living under your parents' roof after a semester in a dorm is not quite the easiest transition to make. Besides, by Jan. 12, most of your friends that go to other schools will be heading back -- leaving you at home alone with perhaps your pet and the remote control, two things that lose their novelty relatively quickly.

To all of the sophomores: before you have to start spending winter break networking or making loads of money to afford your semester abroad, try something different and go on a VV. I know from experience that your winter break will be spent with about five people that you still keep in touch with from high school. And by the time January 12 comes around, they are either going to be back at school or you are all going to be so tired of hanging out and watching TV in someone's living room that you are going to revert back to IM-ing from your basement and being bored out of your minds.

To all of the juniors: if you are not going abroad, the least you can do is travel in the US. You will still be exposed to a new culture and get to meet new people. Consider it as having all of the benefits of a condensed semester abroad, without the homework, jetlag, and debt.

To all of the seniors: bottom line, this is your last chance to go on a Winter VV, and chances are, you have already booked that flight to Cancun in the Spring. Plus, you could have the honor and privilege of driving your fellow VVers with your 21+ licenses. And, bottom line, you could use a VV as a great addition to your resume.

So if I have appealed to anyone, the next step is easy. Come to the VV general interest meeting tonight in Braker 001 at 10 p.m. Applications will be available there for you to put down your trip preferences and we will begin accepting completed applications along with checks to reserve your spot on a trip. If you cannot make it, applications can also be picked up at the info booth, or the LCS office in the basement of the Lincoln-Filene center on the quad. Trips are filled on a first-come first-served basis, so turn in completed applications and checks as soon as possible.

Oh, and if your last excuse is that you need to see the coming attractions for The OC, do yourself a favor and buy a VHS tape. It will be just as exciting if you watch it after the meeting.

Allison Cohen is a senior majoring in Child Development.