Hello Hawkeyes, I recently had a weekend trip from the University of Iowa to St. Louis, Missouri. I wanted to share with you how you can take a weekend getaway from college, how I juggled this as a student, and of course, take you along for the story of what I did!

You went to St.Louis for a college-related trip? Can I do that? How?

Yes, I went to St.Louis with a student organization sponsored by the University of Iowa. I am a part of Alpha Phi Omega at the University of Iowa and as a service group, we traveled to do some community service.

You can travel (college-related) in a multitude of ways at the University of Iowa, not just with the student organization I am affiliated with, but also independently!

• For anyone: join a student organization you feel a passion towards. Many organizations either take weekend trips such as this or send members across the state, country, or world to attend conferences and represent the University of Iowa’s student organizations. Find your passion here and send an email to the organization and ask how they represent themselves on a broader scale.
• For anyone: if you want a long-term trip, study abroad, or volunteer abroad during the normal academic year or the summer. Studying abroad takes lots of planning academically and financially. Start getting an idea of what your experience may look like by visiting this page. Ask a UIowa academic advisor or meet with the International Programs Office to learn some of the first steps of the study abroad process to see if it is a good fit for you! Volunteering abroad I do not believe can count for academic credit (but it can count as experiential learning for honors students) and is typically done through a third-party company. Both of these experiences have grants and scholarships available for this purpose.
• For honors students: travel with a purpose for your required experiential learning. There are grants and scholarships available for this.

How did you juggle being a full-time college student and preparing to take a 3-4 day weekend off?

Lots of planning was involved in this trip just to make sure I was still on top of my school work. I divided my normal Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday assignments and quizzes to be completed a couple of days early so I wouldn’t have to juggle schoolwork on the road or risk the work not getting completed and my grades being a sacrifice.

It was hard doing extra work on an already full day, but it was most definitely worth it to be able to take a complete break from school for a couple days. It was good for my mental health to be worry-free too!

Of course, it is important not to just be a work-a-holic a couple of days before the trip, breaks are needed. For me, I found joy in packing for the trip, such as picking out clothes to wear. My breaks from my school work consisted of packing and cleaning because of this.

Most importantly, what did you do on your trip?

As mentioned before, I took this trip with a service organization, meaning with did a lot of community service around St. Louis. We also did a lot of fellowship or bonding!

Day 1

• Drive to St. Louis
• Go get dinner with fellow members
• Settle in (I was bunkmates with my “little”)
• Stay up late playing lots of board games and just talking

Day 2

• Volunteer at the church we were staying at (we helped remodel)
  • I along with some other members painted a common room
  • Some volunteers did some heavy lifting and moved furniture to a new position in the church
  • Some volunteers made the outside of the church feel more inviting by doing some gardening
• Use some free time to get lunch and take a walk around St.Louis
• Volunteer at Annie Malone, a children and family services center
  • Some furniture moving was completed again
  • Lots of deep cleaning
  • I helped, along with others, in sifting through and organizing donations
• Use your free time to visit the arch (of course we took pictures)
• Go get dinner at a fun restaurant downtown
• Ride electric scooters back to our place of stay
• Play games and talk late into the night

Day 3

• Volunteer at Gateway Pet Guardians, an animal welfare shelter and resource center
  • Did lots of organizing of donated items as well as clean-up of the property and storage spaces
  • Got to play with some lovely animals (meet Olive! I wish I could have taken her home she was so sweet)
  • Got lunch and packed up our place of stay
  • Loaded up cars to head home
  • Got some coffee and ice cream for the road
  • Headed back to Iowa City

Overall, I had a blast going on this weekend service trip with my organization. It was a great break from school and I got to bond with a lot of my organizations’ members (new and old) as well as some members I have not had a chance to talk one-on-one to! I can’t wait to see some stories about where you went next!