With Spring Break less than a month away, UW students are eagerly looking forward to a week of promoting positive change in the greater Seattle area.

The University of Washington's Center for Experiential Learning holds the Pipeline Project, which associates UW undergraduate students with community service opportunities with students in grades K-12 in the Seattle Public Schools.

The Pipeline Project facilitates the annual Alternative Spring Break program that recruits UW undergraduate students to volunteer in a variety of educational programs in rural communities during Spring Break.

"The Pipeline Project does three main things," said Nimisha Ghosh Roy, coordinator of special projects in the Pipeline Project. "We are involved in volunteer work, education seminars and Alternative Spring Break. We work with a hundred different students from different schools throughout the year and especially during Spring Break."

During the week of March 19-23, students will travel to different locations across the state to work with children in various projects involving literacy arts, environmental education and space science education.

The Pipeline Project travels to rural towns and Native American reservations, Ghosh Roy said.

Alternative Spring Break will have sites located across the state, ranging from the Olympic Peninsula to Eastern Washington, including Neah Bay, Forks, La Push, Brewster, Bridgeport, Harrah, Curlew, Tonasket, Wapato and Toppenish.

The program began in 2001 and has been increasingly popular within the campus.

"We recruit about 55 participants per year, so there's a long wait list," said Ghosh Roy. "Most of our teams do literacy art projects with students. It's great because the finished project gets published in the Alternative Spring Break magazine. Imagine being a third grader and seeing your stories published in a magazine!"

Some students are responding positively to the project, even if not involved.

"I volunteered quite a bit in high school and the Alternative Spring Break project sounds like fun," said junior Vlada Gurvits. "I think it is a creative idea and will benefit the community in many ways."

The Pipeline Project hopes to inspire UW students to explore the opportunities available in the greater Seattle area and within the community.

"I know a number of students have come out of this realizing that they want to teach," said Ghosh Roy. "From my personal experience, I have learned that I want to be an eighth grade teacher. I think UW students benefit from getting a great perspective of the greater Washington state. Students experience a very different environment from the wonderful university and learn what Washington is really all about."

Reach reporter Vicky Yan at editor@thedaily.washington.edu.