Many high school students spend their last month of summer break sleeping in or lounging around their houses; However, senior Meredith Stone traveled to Santo Domingo, the capitol of the Dominican Republic, to do community service from August 1 to 16. Over the 15 days she was there, Stone completed 45 hours of service.
Stone arranged her trip through a company called Visions Service Adventures. The company organizes trips to 10 different locations around the world. Once there, American high schoolers to do community service alongside other students from around the world. According to Stone, 18 other students were in her group, but, she was the only person from Campolindo.
Stone decided to go to the Dominican Republic because “it was the closest to the U.S., so it was the easiest.”
Each day Stone woke up at about 7 a.m. During the 15 days, she shared a 3 room house with 7 other girls. Either before or after breakfast, the entire group got together to do group building activities.
After that, the volunteers broke into 2 groups. One group went to the construction site of a community center. The other half went to a summer camp, where they read to and did art projects with local children ages 7-12 .
There was a 1 hour break for lunch, then the volunteering work continued in the afternoon. According to Stone, they spent about 6 hours volunteering each day.
After the workday was over, the students either visited a local beach, went shopping at Mercado de Santo Domingo, a market in Santo Domingo, or had free time until dinner.
Stone enjoyed her experience. She said that she has plans to go abroad and volunteer again in a different place, such as the Galapagos or Ecuador, although not necessarily through the Visions program.
