We always advise potential participants and their families to speak to our references. They are the best spokespersons. The proof of VISIONS' teen service programs abroad is "in the pudding," rather, in the unique program ingredients that are the VISIONS participants themselves, their reactions and reflections. Samantha Saccomano, Westport, CT, was with us last summer in Vietnam. In Samantha's case, we are hard-pressed to decide which is the more glowing reference for VISIONS teen travel programs abroad: her words or the powerful images she snapped of Vietnam. Samantha wrote to us recently.

"This past summer, I participated in the VISIONS Vietnam program. Through working and travels, I was able to document and photograph our journey and the people we met along the way. Though all of my images mean a lot to me, I chose seven to enter in numerous photos contests and to send to colleges that I am applying to. My high school decided to display my photos in school to highlight the importance of understanding and learning about different cultures. In the near future, I am planning on a kids' clothing drive so that I can send clothes to the children at the [Thuy An] center.

Hundreds of high school students volunteer every summer, and many go abroad to countries where the foreign language could be a barrier to more than passing connections with local people. For over 20 years our participants have been showing us that teenagers, especially, find ways around and through the language barrier to mutually meaningful connections with those they serve.  2009 participant Alexa Ottenstein did just that in Vietnam last summer. Alex sent us her college essay last fall, based on her experience at the Thuy An Children's Center. Clearly, Alexa didn't let an inability to speak but a handful of Vietnamese phrases keep her from connecting beautifully to one little girl.

By: Alexa Ottenstein, VISIONS Alumni 2009

I sit down on Hue's bed, a metal frame with a bamboo mat on top of it. Hue is eleven years old, with luminous eyes and long black hair that reaches her waist. She wants to teach me a board game. I know this will be a challenge considering she is deaf, mute, and knows only Vietnamese. Hue teaches me the game in complete silence, just using her hands. Together we wait to see what number will appear on the dice and how many spaces we can advance our plastic horses. Although we're supposedly competing, Hue laughs whenever I roll a high number, as I feel her secretly hoping I will win.

The numbers of students who return for a 2nd and even 3rd VISIONS summer have grown steadily over the years. In October we received an email out of the blue that made our day from one such participant. Sylvia Murray, a veteran of three different VISIONS programs (Peru, Nicaragua and Vietnam last summer) is now a freshman at Goucher College in Baltimore. 

“After spending three consecutive summers with VISIONS in three different countries, I want to thank VISIONS for what it has given me. Sitting here now, in my college dorm room starting a new chapter of life, I find myself constantly reflecting on my experiences with VISIONS. VISIONS has definitely helped mold me into the person I am today. I have gained the most intimate friends through VISIONS and now have friends and memories around the world.

The environment VISIONS programs provide is something I miss dearly throughout the year and

Hello, VISIONS alumni!

Many of you have stayed in contact over the years with us and with your trip mates.  Some of you even have returned to VISIONS to work as staffers. We love hearing what you are up to, what you have been doing since your summers with us, and in what ways you became inspired and changed because of your experiences.  If we have learned anything about you at all, it is that you are an amazing group of people with unlimited energy and resources.  That fact becomes clear after each summer when we hear about you from your staff and from you through your evaluations and correspondence. You are the backbone of VISIONS.  Without you, we would not exist.

But where are you now and what are you doing?We want to know.  Increasingly, we are hearing from alumni looking for trip mates, traveling to their old program sites and asking us for directions to the houses they built, or requesting brochures because they now work with youth and want to get the word out about VISIONS.