Conserving a Tropical Ecosystem Treasure (Puerto Rico): Our MAlt trip will focus on environmental conservation efforts in Puerto Rico’s El Yunque Rainforest, a tropical rainforest with a wide diversity of flora and fauna including many species that occur nowhere else in the world. Service will include forest maintenance projects and environmental education projects to support the El Yunque National Forest Service’s efforts to educate the thousands of tourists who visit El Yunque every year. The trip also involves engaging with researchers in the rainforest to learn the effects of climate change and land use in El Yunque.

Twelve Middlebury students will be traveling to Puerto Rico over February break as part of a Middlebury Alternative Break (MAlt) trip. MAlt is a student organization that provides student-designed and student-led service trips for Middlebury College students. MAlt offers opportunities for students to participate in strong direct service that seeks to address needs as determined by a local community partner. MAlt is committed to a needs-blind acceptance policy. As a result, we do extensive fundraising to ensure that participants’ financial needs can be met. We all work together to support one another, which is why this fundraiser is so critical to our efforts. MiddSTART is a critical part of our effort to help us fundraise for our trip expenses.