VISIONS Service Adventures: Dominican Republic

I attended VISION’s Dominican Republic trip in the summer of 2021 as a rising junior in high school. Now, three years later, and as a sophomore in college, it is with great certainty that I would not be even close to the person I am today without that trip. The Dominican Republic was my first time leaving the United States and flying alone! This taught me so much about navigating traveling alone and learning about international travel. Something that I have a great intention of filling my life with to this day. VISIONS does a wonderful job of keeping kids in the loop while traveling– travel agents keep in direct touch with their participants and family members, and even connect them with other kids who may be on the same flight! This helps ease the nervousness of international travel at a younger age. One of the most important things that VISIONS offers is a technology-free summer. Your phone is taken away after connecting with the VISIONS employees at the arrival airport, and after a call home assuring everyone made it there safely. The phones are given out at the departing airport at the end of the trip. This completely changes the way I view my well-being and how I gain a sense of place when traveling– being present. Inconsequentially, always being around fellow participants gives a greater sense of community and intentionality. Learning how to live closely with people, make meals, clean, and work together for times closer to a month, brought me an immeasurable amount of joy. The worksites are a very authentic experience of working without large machinery and get you in touch with your body and what you’re creating. In the DR, it is very hot, humid, and sunny. This is what gives your kid a chance to challenge themselves physically and to learn how to work alongside others. Depending on the duration of the trip (and I always recommend going on the longest trip!) most work days will be Monday-Friday and usually 5 or 6 hours (also depending on allocated volunteer hours). VISIONS makes sure that every day is jam-packed with work, good food, good sleep, activities, and community-bonding opportunities. In the Dominican Republic, every morning we would eat breakfast together, go to the worksite shortly thereafter, eat lunch at the worksite, and come back to “home base”. From there on, we would have an early afternoon activity that is usually paired with language immersion with the vecinos (neighbors). While dinner was getting ready, we usually had a later afternoon activity that also included community involvement like arts and crafts with the local kids! After dinner, we would either have circle, which provided a center for discussion and group growth. Overall, I couldn’t recommend this experience more!

I love Visions’ approach to teach kids about the value of community. It’s more than excursions and visiting a beautiful place. It’s the valuable experience of guiding a group of teens to work together to accomplish something significant together, and having fun along the way! Julia had an amazing experience! She made valuable friendships and came home with a renewed enthusiasm to set goals for her senior year and beyond. The program enforces a “can do” attitude, promoting a growth mindset all while having fun experiences with new friends.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the time I spent in the Dominican Republic, however, the way Visions ran the trip left a lot to be desired. I spent my time with 23 other teens, who behaved increasingly poorly and vulgarly, which was not addressed by the leaders on the trip whatsoever. There was constant homophobic, transphobic, racist, and misogynistic sentiments expressed by the students on the trip, along with talk of sex, drugs, and alcohol. These issues were bought up to the leaders multiple times by multiple people, including the fact it was making students feel unsafe and sexualized, and instead of doing anything to quell these conversations or punish the students appropriately, the leaders told us to ignore it or to attempt to fix it ourselves. The leaders were not well versed on mental health and thus could not help students when in crisis. At one point, a student faked sickness, attempted to buy drugs and alcohol, went on a hunger strike, said racial slurs, objectified the girls on the trip and threatened other students with violence (including sexual violence) among other things, and was allowed to remain for the duration of the trip. One leader in particular called our generation "weak" and expressed that we were making "no big change" with our service project. She told us multiple times that we had to "grow up" and that we were "too sensitive" and that we didn't understand what the world was really like. I felt very unsafe within the group and was unable to appreciate my trip fully because of it. Alternatively, all the time I spent outside the homestead and with the locals was amazing. The teens at the worksites and our neighbors were all incredibly kind and understanding. As a LGBT teen, I felt much more comfortable with them than I ever did with Visions. Personally, my experience with Visions was poor, and though the service portion of the trip was enjoyable and the Dominican was wonderful, I would not recommend Visions or ever consider going on a trip with them again.