DeKALB | This Spring Break, some NIU students travelled on service trips instead of going on vacations.

“A lot of students probably spent their break trying to get laid,” joked graduate accountancy student Matt Elakatt. “We weren’t even getting paid.”

Elakatt went to New Orleans in one of four trips sent by the Newman Catholic Student Center. On another trip, Campus Crusade for Christ took a group of students to evangelize on the beach in Panama City, Fla. Eric Gilbert, a junior communication and journalism student, said he chose this trip because of the chance to talk to people about “where they’re at spiritually.”

Additionally, Lutheran Campus Ministries sent students to Guatemala, and sociology instructor Jack King brought a group to Pensacola, Fla.

“I wanted to do something positive, rather than getting drunk and fornicating with girls in Mexico,” said junior sociology student Lornett Vestal, who went with the sociology department. Vestal said the group stayed in beachfront condos, awakening at dawn every day to work with Habitat for Humanity.

Vestal said he plans to go on a service trip next year, and recommends that other students go, as well.