In the next couple of weeks, thousands of college students nationwide will forgo relaxing with fruity drinks and flip-flops during spring break to go on educational service trips known as "alternative breaks."

About 72,000 students will take part this year, estimates Break Away, an alternative-break resource representing programs at about 130 colleges.

HAITIAN STUDENTS: Struggle over whether to return

A number of colleges have shown interest in helping Haiti after its earthquake.

But they're being discouraged. The Center for International Disaster Information (CIDI) is telling inexperienced volunteers to wait at least a few months before traveling to Haiti, center director Suzanne Brooks told the online publication Inside Higher Ed.

"I don't think it's impossible that a year from now for spring break there may be some programs up and running, but I really don't think it makes sense for this year," she said.

Inside Higher Ed also says Break Away has told its college chapters not to arrange trips there until conditions are better. "There is a lot of work that needs to be done by people who have skills to help with the immediate response to disaster before unskilled groups can start going there," said Samantha Giacobozzi, programs director. "The resources that would be utilized by alternative breakers would be better used by Haitians and people doing essential work."

So for now, more of the alternative breaks will be in traditional service tasks.

Blake LeMaster, a senior at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, will travel to Dallas to work with leukemia patients at a pediatric oncology clinic.

LeMaster is co-chair of Vanderbilt's alternative-breaks program. This spring the program will send about 500 students out on 36 trips, says adviser Shaiya Baer, assistant director of the university's Office of Active Citizenship and Service.

During her alternative break last year, Britney Holland, a senior at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, taught as part of the Kilimanjaro Young Girls in Need program in Tanzania, where she also helped revitalize the cafe the girls ran when they were not in school.

Holland, an Iraq war veteran, is leading an alternative break to Colorado Springs, where she and other student veterans will rebuild the homes of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.

Loyola Marymount is sending 18 other trips out this spring but is unable to send students to its most highly requested location, Haiti, because of safety concerns, says Joanne Dennis, alternative-breaks coordinator.

"We're looking into sending a team down there this summer, if this is going to be a possibility ... but right now Haiti doesn't need unskilled volunteers taking up their resources," Dennis says.

Florida International University in Miami is planning to send 12 students to Haiti this summer through its alternative-break program to work on humanitarian relief and health care, says Angel Garcia, assistant director for leadership and service.

This spring break, Florida International's alternative-break program will aid Haiti victims by working at an orphanage with children who have spilled over into the Dominican Republic.

Students at Xavier University in Cincinnati will be working with orphans in Jamaica, helping rebuild parts of their orphanage and through participating in developmental activities with the kids, says Christopher Bridges, assistant director of peace and justice programs.

Another program from American University in Washington, D.C., will be traveling to the Navajo Nation reserve that spans parts of Arizona and New Mexico to work on an environmental justice program with the states' uranium and coal mines.

Despite the diversity of alternative-break trips, which range from addressing homelessness in Washington, D.C., to geriatric care in North Carolina, the programs all have one mission: "to work toward creating active citizens through education, action and reflection," Bridges says.

READERS: Have you ever taken a volunteering vacation? Where?