Increase student support and affordability for the Buck-I-SERV Alternative Breaks Program

Buck-I-SERV is Ohio State University’s Alternative Break Program coordinated through the Office of Student Life’s Leadership and Community Engagement department. Beginning as a student initiative with a single trip in 2003, Buck-I-SERV has grown to provide over 1,000 trips serving alongside 150+ community partners in the past 23 years to over 30 states and 14 countries. Buck-I-SERV provides students with a challenging and engaging opportunity to lead and learn through direct service experiences. 

Over winter break 2025-2026, Buck-I-SERV facilitated nine trips to four states, Washington DC and two international locations for over 90 participants. Together, they collectively completed over 270 hours of service. Our alternative break participants supported community-based efforts focused on poverty alleviation, access to housing and resources, special needs youth, survivors of human trafficking, youth experiencing incarceration and more. Throughout their trips, students engaged in dialogue and reflection designed to prepare them to continue their commitment to service when they return to campus.

For more information about Buck-I-SERV and our impact, please visit our website.

How will my gift support the Buck-I-SERV Program?

By giving to the Buck-I-SERV Program, your contribution will support our programmatic priority of increasing students' ability to participate in our alternative break trips by decreasing financial barriers. This priority is accomplished through two major efforts:

• Building and expanding our Student Access Fund to provide financial support to individual students participating in our trips
• Subsidizing trip costs to increase the overall affordability and accessibility of our programs for all students

On average, a domestic trip costs around $10,000 for Buck-I-SERV to facilitate. This cost includes all travel-related expenses, lodging, community partner program fees or donations, pre-trip events and trainings, trip supplies, all group meals during the trip and a small budget for activities. 

Buck-I-SERV is generously funded in part by the Student Activity Fee, which allows us to subsidize the cost of our trips for students by approximately 50%. However, we do rely upon student participant fees to cover remaining costs. For the 2025-2026 academic year, all domestic trip participant fees are $500.

In an effort to address affordability, Buck-I-SERV launched our Access Fund initiative in spring 2024. Through the Buck-I-SERV Access Fund, we are able to use gift/donor funding to cover up to 100% of individual students' trip participant fees. Our priority is decreasing barriers for students who may not be able to access our programming otherwise to empower them to take part in a mutually transformative service-learning experience both for the communities they serve alongside and themselves.

Since the Access Fund was established, we have received over 150 applications from students seeking financial support to participate in our trips. We have been able to fully or partially fund many participants, but our current financial resources are not able to meet all our students' needs. In order to sustain the Access Fund and ensure that it is a resource for years to come, more funding is vital. 

Our ultimate goal is to raise $10,000 during this campaign which would allow us to fully fund participation in a domestic trip for 20 students (two full trips)! 

Please help us reach our goal! Any and all support is greatly appreciated and will directly impact student access.

"The biggest takeaway was the importance of community. When volunteering at Foods and Friends I meet many new people each day from the Washington D.C. area. Each person I met was so unique and they all emphasized their love of serving and volunteering. I learned that Food and Friends rely on community members to volunteer to help continue their work. This really emphasizes the importance of community! I also got to practice my team work and leadership skills in many instances through out the trip. ” ~ Washington D.C: Food and Friends Participant