BEAVER COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL STUDENT Spent 2014 Summer Vacation Working in the Dominican Republic
January 29, 2015 – Bozeman, Montana – During the 2014 summer Devin Lewtan, a student at Beaver Country Day School, spent a month of summer vacation working and exploring in the Dominican Republic with VISIONS Service Adventures, an international community service based adventure travel program.
Lewtan was part of a group of high school students who spent 27 days living and working in a quiet neighborhood in Santo Domingo, the capital city. The teen volunteers partnered with community contacts to help build a new local baseball field and worked with local teen ayudantes to organize and facilitate Campamento de Juveniles (day camp) in San Luís for 60 children ages seven to 13. Activities included English instruction, reading, songs, sports, art and crafts. They also designed and painted an 8’ x 10’ mural at the San Luís School.
The trip wasn’t all work for Lewtan and her peers. They learned about Dominican culture firsthand through shared work projects and social visits with local hosts. Students explored Santo Domingo’s Colonial Zone, a huge artisans market, and historic sites. They also swam at nearby beaches and spent a weekend get-away in the Dominican Alps, where they hiked and visited a popular waterfall.
“Service in the cross-cultural context allows teens the opportunity to make a difference and, just as important, know the people whose lives they are impacting in personal, mutually respectful ways,” says Katherine Dayton, VISIONS Executive Director. “We give students tangible ways to be challenged through ambitious service work, thereby developing resilience and self-confidence, and realizing their potential in this world.”
VISIONS operates high school volunteer travel programs in Alaska, the British Virgin Islands, Cambodia, Mississippi, Montana Blackfeet, Montana Northern Cheyenne, Myanmar (Burma), Dominican Republic, Ecuador & Galapagos, Nicaragua, Peru, Guadalupe, and middle school programs, including the Island Passage in the British Virgin Islands and Northern Passage in Montana’s Northern Cheyenne Indian reservation.
“Each of our program locations is unique,” said Dayton, “but all provide primary ingredients of community service, cultural immersion, adventure and opportunities to explore places off the tourist track.”
For more information about VISIONS, check out http://www.visionsserviceadventures.com/, or contact Corinne Garcia at 406-272-0221 or Corinne@visionsserviceadventures.com.
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Press release provided by VISIONS SERVICE ADVENTURES