January may be almost over, and February may have nothing for you to look forward to except Valentine’s Day (which, for a lot of us, is less a holiday and a more a day spent buying ourselves candy and throwing the wrappers at all the happy couples on TV), but March is certainly coming, and it’s bringing with it two of the most amazing words in the English language: Spring Break.

Now, a lot of you out there may associate Spring Break with places like Cancun, Florida, the Bahamas, and other tropical paradises where there’s nothing to do except drink weird fruity things with tiny paper umbrellas floating in them.

And while I have nothing against fruity drinks and paper umbrellas (not to mention scantily clad people lathered up with suntan lotion), Spring Break can be a time for more than just getting a tan and having seven nights of hook-ups you regret later. It can be a time to actually do some good.

The Isabela Oceanographic Institute (IOI), a Florida-based non-profit organization that deals with both American and European study abroad programs, has one of the most amazing Spring Break opportunities around: spend a week in the Galapagos islands while researching ways for them to stay self sufficient. Read More »