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Alternative summer break trip provided a hands-on learning experience for students to study about Amsterdam's public health strategies.

A cornerstone of the College of Health and Human Services is to prepare future leaders to tackle current and emerging public health issues. This summer students did just that through a multidisciplinary experiential learning trip. The alternative summer break (Alt-Break) trip to Amsterdam brought together students seeking to understand how policies and access to care affect HIV/AIDS from a public health perspective.

During the trip, titled “It’s Not Them but Us – Turning the Tide on HIV and AIDS: Washington, DC and Amsterdam,” students learned how stigma surrounding sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and sexual transmitted infections (STIs) affect marginalized communities in the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia areas, how to effectively combat misconceptions associated with HIV and AIDS, and they compared sexual health systems and policies.

This immersive experience provided an opportunity for students and faculty to expand their perspectives and bring new insights into U.S. public health and health care. Alt-Break trips advocate for approaching public health by gaining insight from the population affected by the issue and modeling any interventions with input from the community. In this case, students had the opportunity to engage with those directly involved in sex work while in Amsterdam. Blythe Dellinger (BS Global and Community Health ’22), a student leader on this year’s trip, recognizes how valuable this experience is.

“The most rewarding aspect of this trip is that we were often led by people who have lived experience,” said Dellinger. “Whether that was people who have lived experience with HIV, sex work, Dutch culture, etc. We made a conscious effort to ensure our students were hearing from people with these valued and often under-sourced perspectives.”

After leading the trip virtually last year due to the pandemic, Dellinger was ecstatic to finally be able take advantage of the in-person travel aspect of alternative breaks. The week-long trip included students and faculty from four different Mason colleges, and was led by Shannyn Snyder, an adjunct faculty member in the .  

Experiencing Public Health Within Cultural Context

Students learned about sexual health policy and culture in Amsterdam compared to the United States. They were able to go through the Red-Light District and speak with the to examine the roles sex work, substance use, and social issues intertwine in relation to HIV/AIDS.

“It was interesting learning that there are different systems of sexual health policy. Even varying Nordic models are different from one another,” said now graduated Honors College student Julia Hakeem, who received her BS in biology from the College of Science and minored in Spanish within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. “We also learned about harm reduction, a philosophy about meeting people where they are.”

In addition to their investigation of HIV/AIDS in marginalized populations, students had the chance to witness the environmental side of public health. Students stayed in an Amsterdam Farm Lodge that is a part of an urban farming project called . Similar to , a public health concept that recognizes how our health is closely related to animals and the environment, the compound they lived on centered on sustaining health through taking care of their natural surroundings.

“The community’s values were formulated upon sustainable, eco-friendly living,” said Yousif Hakeem, a rising senior also in the Honors College majoring in Global and Community Health. “It included beautiful gardens and buildings that sourced all its food from the ground it was built upon.”

Making Service A Lifestyle

Many students will take the lessons they learn into future careers.

“I have accepted a position with the Washington AIDS Partnership as an AmeriCorps fellow in Washington, D.C.,” said Dellinger. “My experience as an Alternative Break Leader over the last two years has been hugely influential in my desired career path, with it being the main reason I applied to be an AmeriCorps fellow. I think both experiences prepared me for engaging with my community from a perspective that values and centers choice and dignity regarding health care.”

The trip was an alternative summer break trip sponsored by SAIL, which fosters integrative, innovative, and experiential learning opportunities on campus, regionally, and globally that educate and activate toward a more equitable, just, nonviolent, and sustainable world. Programs include undergraduate research, field studies, civic engagement, alternative breaks, and more.