VISIONS Service Adventures offers summer community service programs for high school students—community service abroad for high school students and community service in a few locations in the U. S.  VISIONS programs are more than teen volunteering.  We offer hard core service in deep culture immersion settings, and adventurous exploration from an insider’s perspective. VISIONS participants go places, see and do things that tourists rarely do.

 

For over two decades, a proven successful framework has underpinned VISIONS programming. Whether the location is in North, Central or South America, the Caribbean or Vietnam, there are three basic components to every VISIONS experience:  ambitious community service, continuous culture and language immersion, interesting and adventurous exploration.

 

For example, one of VISIONS Spanish-language programs is in the central highlands of northern Nicaragua. For a month, high school students tackle sustainable service work planned every season with our primary partner—Association of Volunteers for the Development of Communities (AVODEC). AVODEC is a grassroots non-profit that works tirelessly to improve health conditions through education and preventative health practices, to create housing and water systems, advance agriculture, provide vocational skills training and support development of micro-businesses for northern Nicaraguan communities.

 

VISIONS Nicaragua participants work about 55% of the time, roughly five days a week. Working alongside them are members of the host community, typically farmers, who take time from their fields each day to lend a hand to projects that will improve life for everyone. To help make up for lost time farming, a small, rotating crew of participants break from the main project to go the farms and help cultivate potatoes, lettuce and cabbages.

 

In 2010 VISIONS Nicaragua created a potable water system for San Gregoria community and labored on las fincas with farmers who helped dig the irrigation ditches, build the reservoir and move tubing into place for the water system.  In previous summers, VISIONS volunteers built 10 compost latrines for the Las Tejeras village and constructed a 25-kilometer potable water system for and with the communities of Chauite Grande and Sigle II.

 

VISIONS Nicaragua participants are home-based in a large house in the small city of Jinotega from which small villages and communities radiate out into the mountains. We work and socialize daily with Nicaraguans. We have the same Nicaraguan cook and bus drivers every season. We spend evenings, and entire days, with people from AVODEC and from the villages who will benefit from our projects. Such constant interaction with native Spanish speakers increases participants’ Spanish language skills. And we learn about the country’s history, culture, traditions and daily life first-hand, from our hosts.

 

Every weekend is for exploring Nicaragua’s legendarily breathtaking beauty, hiking up 50-foot waterfalls, touring historic towns and coffee farms, strolling colorful marketplaces. In the afternoons after work and evenings, we play street soccer with local kids, have karaoke nights and salsa dancing lessons with neighbors, learn how to make traditional pottery, and more.

 

VISIONS is one of many teen community service programs available. Yet VISIONS is more than one of many community service travel programs. It is unique for the scope and ambition of the service projects accomplished, the depth of the culture immersion and strong ties with local organizations and people, and the historically long-lasting friendships forged with fellow participants and host community members.