Visions Service Adventures

Trinidad. Australia. Virgin Gorda. What do these destinations have in common? For Mindy
Podraza, these are a few of the exotic places she’s worked during her five summers as an employee of Visions Service Adventures.

So how did this Ralston Middle School teacher find such a unique way to spend her summers off? “I Googled cool summer jobs,” Podraza says with a laugh. That simple search led her to the adventure of a lifetime, where she ended up working in some of the most picturesque places on earth. Gotta love the internet.

Relationships Ripen in Thuy An

2010 is Wes Hedden’s third season in VISIONS Vietnam. He’s worked the life of the program so far, and this season will be the program director. We met Wes during one of our earliest planning trips to Vietnam. He was working then for a university and a rural development NGO. From Vietnam Wes moved to Burma in 2008 to teach history and coordinate service learning at a small school in Yangon. This year, while living in rural Cambodia, his work focused on disaster risk reduction. After VISIONS Vietnam ends this summer, Wes returns to Cambodia to a job focused on protecting the rights of ethnic minorities in the eastern part of the country. Simultaneously, and with assistance from Princeton-in-Asia, Wes also will create a volunteer exchange program between Cambodian and Vietnamese university students; a program, Wes tell us, that draws much of its inspiration from VISIONS.

All VISIONS leaders must write evaluations after their programs end, which are framed by a dozen or so questions we ask that typically require more than a cursory answer. Some leaders, though, take exceptional time and care with their evaluations, like Wes has done with his evaluations every season. Here is an excerpt from his 2009 program evaluation; he’s comparing the second season in Vietnam with our first in 2008.

“It was definitely rewarding to be at the Center a second year! Whereas the first year the Center was skeptical about what our high school students could actually accomplish and the kids’ commitment, this year the Center seemed trusting and confident in us. We were frequently reminded that we’re viewed differently from other groups and that we have

The earthquake in Haiti has brought no discernible change to daily life in the DR. Still, as we noted in the January/February 2010 Visionary, the Dominican Republic (DR), so close and yet so removed in many ways from Haiti, may well be experiencing an increase in populations in batey communities as some Haitians make their way across the borders.

Public services in bateys, such as education and health resources, sewage systems, water and other utilities always have been sorely lacking. The earthquake in Haiti may mean even greater stresses on batey neighborhoods that have been coping for decades with the absence of the most basic services and resources.

In February the youth organization of B'nai Jeshurun Synagogue in New York City took a week out of busy academic schedules to construct a long-anticipated water system in the northern Nicaragua community of Chaguite Grande. Before describing the community members’ and teen volunteers’ efforts in Nicaragua, the Western Hemisphere’s second poorest nation behind Haiti, let’s first take a look at issues surrounding water on our planet. According to the nonprofit Water.org and statistics from the World Health Organization:

And more:

• On average, every US dollar invested in water and sanitation provides an economic return of US$ 8 dollars. (UN Health Development Report)
• Other estimated economic benefits of investing in drinking water and sanitation:
• 272 million school attendance days a year
• 1.5 billion healthy days for children under five years of age

The experience in Nicaragua was unforgettable. We played soccer with a Jinotegan team, went grocery shopping in a market, and enjoyed dinner with host families. For me, the best part was becoming close with Nicaraguans. From children like Reynaldo or Alec whom we played with, to teenagers like Jennifer who we could relate to, or adults like Victorino a role model who gave us support, the people were the key to making this a true learning service trip that I will remember for the rest of my life. - Rebecca Lowy

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When I got home from Nicaragua and faced the challenge of readjusting to my life, which I had been blissfully separated from, my friends and family asked me about the trip. I gave various enthusiastic responses, frequently just saying "amazing" or sometimes going more into depth, describing experiences.

I told people about our work, digging trenches to lay pipes for potable water for people's houses. I explained how our group worked with Visions, AVODEC, and the locals of Chauite Grande to bring tangible and necessary life improvement. I was flooded with memories describing some activities we did after work: visiting a collaborative pottery workshop; exploring a beautiful coffee farm on horseback; having dinner with a family of Jinotega; dancing at a discoteca. The group itself had the kind of dynamic, positive attitude that

Monique Schmidt directed VISIONS service programs abroad in Guadeloupe and at home in Montana. A poet, teacher and published author (her memoir Last Moon Dancing is the story of her Peace Corps years in Africa), Monique moved to Rwanda last November to be Program Director for the Akilah Institute for Women, the first vocational and leadership training institute for young women in Rwanda. Akilah provides quality education and vocational training to young women who are unable to attend university. The women spend a year getting grounded in English language, computer skills, and introductory hospitality classes. Then they and other young women from around Rwanda begin a two-year diploma program to learn vocational and technical skills for the hospitality and tourism industry.

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Gineen Klein, and I've been brought on as an intern to replace the promotion department here at Propensity Books...and have some excellent ideas for promotion.

To start: Do you blog? If not, get in touch with Kris and Christopher from our online department, although at this point I think only Christopher is left. I'll be out of the office from tomorrow until Monday, but when I get back I'll ask if he spoke to you. We use CopyBuoy via Hoster Boraster, because it streams really easily into a Plaxo/LinkedIn yak-fest meld. When you register, click "Endless," and under "Contacts" just list everyone you've ever met. It would be great if you could post at least 6,000 words every day until further notice...

If you already have a blog, make sure you spray-feed your URL in niblets open-face to the skein. We like Reddit bites (they're better than Delicious), because they max out the wiki snarls of RSS feeds, which means less jamming at the Google scaffold...."

WHAAT?!!? Okay, it's a joke. These paragraphs open "Subject: Our Marketing Plan," which appeared in the October 19 issue of The New Yorker magazine. The piece is a hilariously tongue-in-cheek spoof on blogging and viral marketing, and the confounding convolution of it all, or at least it seems to me.

A question we're often asked is, how serious, how authentic, are the service projects VISIONS undertakes? Is it 'real' service? Our archives from 1989 to last summer overflow with stories that tell of the impact VISIONS projects have had on communities and individuals.

Here is one from the archives, an email received in July 2005 from our leaders in the Dominican Republic. Before 2005 and starting in 1991, our first summer in the Dominican Republic, participants had already built 24 houses, 3 schools (2 that serve as hurricane shelters), 2 community centers, a medical clinic, and several cisterns.

In Remembrance

From Dominica we bring sad news. Angelica Thomas died suddenly in January. From 1996 through last summer, Angelica was a golden thread through all our seasons in Dominica.  She welcomed staff to the Territory with dinners she prepared for them in the days before participants arrived. She made morning breakfasts and brought us freshly squeezed juices nearly every day of the week. She baked

Two VISIONS participants who were on two different programs last summer wrote in detail about their experiences in their school magazine. Blake Taylor was in Peru and Patrick Fleming in Alaska. Blake and Patrick both attend South Kent School, a college preparatory school for boys in South Kent, CT.

“After just a few days, our diverse group became a family, living, eating, speaking with each other and simply being our true selves… Urubamba became a ‘home away from home.’” writes Blake. His group worked in Paclamayo and Collanos communities “installing bathrooms, constructing adobe walls and digging irrigation canals… installing better burning stoves and teaching English” in other villages. “We hiked to tremendous heights, spoke in native tongues and explored deep into the Incan culture…”

VISIONS has witnessed a growing increase in and demand for language immersion programs, specifically, SPANISH! Our waiting lists this season for both the Dominican Republic and Peru programs are as long as they’ve ever been.

An immediate response to the demand was the late addition this season of an August session in Peru (August 2 – 23). Similar to the July session, we will work in Urubamba to build adobe structures, volunteer in Pintacha School, and assist environmental initiatives. Our home base will move from La Salle School to Hacienda Yaravilca, about 20 minutes from Urubamba, situated on the banks of the Vilconata River.

Rockin' It with VISIONS ~ Check out all that our high school volunteers accomplished this summer!

What happens when you combine 328 exceptional teenagers with 61 incredibly motivated staffers in 10 communities around the world for two months? Check out what VISIONS participants accomplished last summer!

• Renovated 3 community centers
• Constructed 4 playgrounds
• Built or renovated 11 schools
• Constructed 1 outdoor environmental classroom
• Built 1 music room / steel pan practice shed
• Cleared and created 3 sports fields
• Built 26 picnic tables
• Renovated houses for 7 local families
• Built furniture for 3 libraries
• Painted a Children’s Home
• Did maintenance on / environmental work in 9 different gardens / farms / nature trails

2006, Fall VISIONARY Newsletter

This past summer VISIONS took 26 students to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The program enrollment was one more than our maximum limit of 25. In fact, VISIONS Mississippi was one of the first programs to fill last year, and as late as May we were turning away interested students. The desire to help Katrina recovery efforts says a lot about today's youth. So did reports coming back from the field in general last summer. The impression shared by VISIONS leaders across the board, especially seasoned staffers who've led many programs, was that their groups were as on board, ready to work and as open to learning as they possibly could have been. This uniformity of intent also is apparent in the program evaluations we’ve received from participants expressing high satisfaction with their experiences from Tanacross Village, Alaska, to Urubamba, Peru. Service in a cultural immersion setting is as relevant and rewarding now as it was in VISIONS first summer in 1989. We are privileged to be stewards of VISIONS, an endeavor that draws such great teens, such tremendously talented young adult leaders, and which involves such exceptional individuals with whom we work every season in all of our locations.

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Community Service in the Gulf Port ~ Mississippi Gumbo

Ingredients:

26 Participants, including two Georgia Peaches
6 Staff (One a demigod; another a Canadian)
1 Cup Mississippi Mud
3 Handfuls Ship Island sand
20 lbs of fresh gulf shrimp
1 Chop saw
2 dozen hammers
2 Aerobics sessions at the Isiah Fredericks Senior Center
1 Pinch New Orleans Jazz

Place ingredients in the North Gulfport Middle School and simmer for 4 weeks, stirring frequently.

It took just the right mix of people, projects and fun to make VISIONS’ first summer in Mississippi a success.  The initial plan was to provide relief to some of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina, which rushed ashore in August 2005 with a nearly 30 foot storm surge and 150 mph winds. 

Our main project was the construction of an outdoor environmental classroom, built on the grounds of the North Gulfport Middle School, our host. We built the classroom behind the school, close to Turkey Creek, a historic tidal river of key importance to the biological and cultural environment of the North Gulfport/Turkey Creek neighborhood and of equal significance as a historic African American enclave located near the crossroads of Interstate 10 and Route 49.

Many participants tell us that their VISIONS summers were life-changing. Indeed, after their summer many continue to make a difference in their home communities, and after that in their college communities. Every year we hear from and about VISIONS alumni. Here is an update on just a few folks we heard from this year who will be graduating or have graduated recently from college.

VISIONS attends Guadeloupe’s 5th Annual Amer-Indian Festival

Joby Taylor, Guadeloupe program director, was invited by Guadeloupe's Ministry of Culture to attend the island’s annual international Amer-Indian Celebration in April. Trois Rivieres, VISIONS’s host community for the past three summers, is an important archeological site for study of human history prior to Spanish arrival in the Caribbean islands. Evidence in the form of petroglyphs (rock carvings) and pottery shards suggests that it was formerly home to a large Arawak Indian community that possibly extended its political reach to several islands.

When I was a VISIONS participant in 1994 I taught math and reading to Crow children in Lodge Grass, Montana. I felt great about my experience and still talk about it today. Sometimes I wonder, though... What happened to the children? Could they still use my help? How could I continue to be of assistance?

No doubt many VISIONS alumni have even more to teach now as adults, but just can’t spend another summer in Montana. Can we still positively impact children’s education and futures by sharing what we’ve learned? I am now an investment banker in San Francisco and wouldn’t have the first clue how to contact the boy I tutored. I’d love to be able to send him an email. How can we introduce children like him to the powerful tools offered by modern technology? I think one answer lies in the Internet. In my career, I rely heavily on the Internet for information and communication. I would be greatly limited without it. I can’t help but think that children growing up without Internet access are at a critical educational and information disadvantage.

Thank you...
...to Cory Fischer-Hoffmann, DR ’99 and the ’99 Peru participants! Cory organized a huge collection drive at her school. The result: 20 boxes of clothing that we will send down to the Dominican Republic with staff and students this summer to be distributed to local children through the Lions Club.

Exciting news! In March I traveled to Hervey Bay about 3 1/2hours north of Brisbane at the southernmost tip of the Great Barrier Reef. I met with members of the Butchulla Aboriginal community with whom we will collaborate on a VISIONS program. Solid groundwork had already been laid before my trip by VISIONS founder and former Executive Director, Mel Bornstein, who spends half the year Down Under. Mel and his wife, Carmen, became acquainted with Korrawinga Aboriginal Corporation and its self-determined endeavors to benefit the local Aboriginal population (about 1,000). They knew right off that Korrawinga and VISIONS were a match. Everything about my trip, from the first day to the last, confirmed their instincts.

Korrawinga’s most impressive project is a 70-acre plot of land that in two years time has been transformed into a fertile organic farm and information/education center. Scrub Hill Farm, on the outskirts of Hervey Bay, will be a perfect home base for VISIONS.