VISIONS

VISIONS

Community Service, Cross-Cultural Living, Adventurous Exploration
North America, Central and South America, Asia, and the Caribbean and West Indies

For More Information, Contact
VISIONS
P.O. Box 220
Newport, Pennsylvania 17074
717-567-7313
800-813-9283 (toll-free)
Fax: 717-567-7853
http://www.VisionsServiceAdventures.com
E-mail: info@visionsserviceadventures.com

Type of Program: Community service, cross-cultural immersion, and adventurous exploration
Participants: Coeducational, ages 14–18 (grades 9–12)
Enrollment: 350 total in twelve locations
Program Dates: Four weeks in July; three weeks in August
Heads of Program: Joanne Pinaire and Teena Beutel

Location

VISIONS offers summer residential experiences based in Alaska native villages, the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Montana Plains Indian reservations, the British Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, Dominica, Guadeloupe, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and the Galapagos, Nicaragua, Peru, and Vietnam. Housing is in a school or community building in the heart of each community. Some sites offer short-term homestays.

Background and Philosophy

Established in 1988, VISIONS offers uniquely integrated summer experiences for teenagers. Community service work is the focus of the programs, which also feature an intentional blend of cross-cultural immersion experiences and intimate exploration of the program site. Students and staff leaders live and work together as a team. VISIONS emphasizes cooperative living in a supportive setting. Weekly circle meetings keep lines of communication open through focused reflection and listening. Under staff guidance, participants play the central role in building the trusting foundation of their program environment.
At every VISIONS site, projects encompass construction and other service work, such as sustainable development; environmental work in national parks and wilderness areas; volunteering with children, the elderly, or the handicapped; agricultural work; and apprenticeships with local vendors, artisans, or health professionals. Participants learn carpentry skills from staff carpenters or local maestros who teach adobe or cinder-block construction techniques. Past projects include ground-up construction of low-income housing, schools, medical clinics, youth centers, playground structures, log bridges, irrigation canals, potable water systems, and the rehabilitation of housing and other community buildings.
Time is always set aside for exploration. Depending on the location, recreation includes rock climbing, ice climbing, backpacking, rafting, snorkeling, sea kayaking, scuba diving, horseback riding, and sight seeing. Participants work and socialize with residents, attend ceremonies and cultural festivities. Relationships with local people provide the important contexts for understanding and learning about other cultures.

Program Offerings

Alaska VISIONS has sites on the northern boundary of south-central Alaska, roughly 4 hours from Fairbanks. Projects in native villages include building playgrounds and recreation facilities, renovating community buildings and elders’ homes, and supervising children’s activity programs. Participants learn about Athabascan culture and a unique frontier heritage. Recreation includes day hikes, extended backpacking trips in the Wrangell Mountains, an ice-climbing adventure, trips to neighboring towns, and wildlife viewing.
Montana Participants live and work on Plains Indian reservations surrounded by abundant natural resources and stunning landscapes. Projects include renovation and construction of tribal buildings and elders’ homes, ceremonial structures, and playgrounds for schools and communities; organizing day camp activities for children; and trail work in primitive wilderness. Renowned for its beauty, the “Last Best Place” offers backpacking, rock climbing, horseback riding, rafting, attending powwows, and sharing a sweat lodge with native friends. Participants learn firsthand about native traditions and history that shapes life on and off the reservations.
Mississippi Gulf Coast VISIONS is home-based in North Gulfport and Turkey Creek, communities rooted in African American history. Purchased by newly emancipated African Americans in 1866, these few acres of swamp land grew into vibrant, self-sufficient neighborhoods with farms, homesteads, businesses, and the first African American school in the Gulfport region. Turkey Creek is a strategic and vital watershed that has come under threat from developers, a threat that intensified in the aftermath of Katrina. The service work in Mississippi varies to include construction, renovation, debris clean-up, work with the elderly and children, and with the Mississippi Audubon Society.
Vietnam VISIONS Vietnam blends the bustle of historic Hanoi with serene landscapes of rice paddies, rolling hills and mountains, jungles, and the coast. In the older generation’s faces are reflected centuries of perseverance and loyalty to tradition, while the youthful majority of Vietnamese seek to embrace Western market-based principles. (Sixty percent of Vietnam’s 84 million people are under 30 years old.) Service includes improvements to housing for those disadvantaged and disabled by the long-term cross-generational effects of chemicals, such as Agent Orange, and assisting English-language and craft classes for children. Participants work and recreate with Vietnamese teenagers. In cooperation with Volunteers for Peace–Vietnam and the Vietnam American Society, VISIONS Vietnam participants witness war’s remnant legacy while simultaneously experiencing the optimistic, forgiving, forward-looking character of the Vietnamese. Exploration is often and fascinating—historical sites, perhaps in Ho Chi Minh City; Ha Long Bay, the World Heritage Site renowned for its beauty and geology; and restaurants, shops, and museums.
The Dominican Republic This program offers service work and language immersion in a Spanish-speaking Third-World country. Past participants have built a medical clinic, homes, and schools. Every summer, participants build houses and organize an extensive day camp for Dominican children. During free time, students experience the vibrant culture and beauty in and around Santo Domingo. Swimming, snorkeling, hiking excursions into the interior, and evenings of merengue dancing are some of the recreation activities offered. This program has a minimum requirement of two years of high school Spanish.
British Virgin Islands In the Caribbean British Virgin Island (BVI), VISIONS groups work on community projects in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, National Parks Trust, Red Cross, Disaster Relief Services, and BVI Services. One group lives on Tortola, the largest of the British Virgin Islands; a second group lives on Virgin Gorda, a smaller neighboring island. Construction is the focus—housing from the ground up, public buildings, structures, and trails for the National Parks Trust. VISIONS also works with public school summer programs, the elderly, and subsistence farmers. The classic Caribbean beaches and coves are perfect for snorkeling and scuba diving.
Guadeloupe Guadeloupe is a French language immersion experience on a Caribbean island blending French and Caribbean cultures. VISIONS works in communities on either mainland Basse Terre or on Terre de Bas, one of Les Saintes, the tiny islands off the southern tip of the mainland. VISIONS participants undertake joint renovation projects designated by local governments, work on parks and preservation endeavors, and apprentice with local fishermen and artisans. In addition to swimming and snorkeling, the group explores the rainforests and mountains of Guadeloupe; the small outerlying islands; colorful, fragrant open-air markets; and the exquisite countryside. This program has a minimum requirement of two years of high school French.
Dominica The “Nature Island” of the Lesser Antilles, with its lush, unspoiled beauty, stands apart from other Caribbean islands. A rainforest mountain range is the north-south spine of Dominica, alive with rare tropical birds and flowers. Whales and dolphins swim the coastal waters. The volcanic island soil is rich, rainfall is abundant, and hundreds of rivers and streams drain the island. Despite its natural beauty, Dominica’s economy is strictly Third World. VISIONS participants live and work on the Carib Reserve, home to the surviving original inhabitants of the Caribbean Islands. Service focus on pressing needs in Carib Territory, such as reforestation, supervising enrichment activities for children, renovating housing and community buildings, and constructing schools, cisterns, roads, and shelters.
Peru VISIONS Peru combines service work in a southeastern Andean village with discovery of ancient Inca and colonial Spanish cultures. Participants live in a highland community while accomplishing adobe construction projects, environmental work, and volunteering in local schools. Students explore Peru’s majestic landscapes by hiking and traveling to centuries-old marketplaces and resplendent historic sites, including Machu Picchu. Groups learn local customs and sometimes participate in cultural traditions. They work with and meet Andean farmers, educators, politicians, musicians, and artisans. This program has a minimum requirement of two years of high school Spanish.
Ecuador and the Galapagos Mitad del Mundo offers Spanish language and indigenous culture immersion on the Galapagos Islands and in a mainland Andean community. This program combines group living and a homestay experience. One week of the program unfolds on the Galapagos; for three weeks, participants live in a mainland Andean village. Projects mix construction, agriculture/farming, and ecological and environmental work. Participants actively explore a mega-diverse World Heritage Site (the Galapagos) and the diverse beauty and culture of Ecuador’s Andean highlands. Recreation includes snorkeling, wildlife viewing, and hiking; treks to waterfalls and lakes; visits to marketplaces and thermal baths; and learning about folkloric music, arts, and dancing. This program has a minimum requirement of two years of high school Spanish.
Costa Rica This is a language-immersion program in one of the most verdant of Central American countries. Part of this program is on a sea turtle preservation reserve on the Caribbean coast that is accessed by boat through winding canals—a quiet, safe sanctuary with 3 kilometers of beach to patrol. Participants assist with turtle patrols and data collection and in development projects on this remote reserve. The rest of the program takes place in a village further inland, not far from Guayaba National Park in the Cartago Province. In partnership with local associations, participants undertake construction and agricultural work to improve community resources. Participants must have a minimum of two years of high school Spanish.
Nicaragua A stunning medley of mountains, craters, lakes, plains, bustling towns, open-hearted people, and scenic bus rides, Nicaragua leaves travelers floored by its breathtaking beauty. Nicaragua, which has been stable for well over a decade, leads Central America’s self-sustaining development evidenced throughout the country by solar and other ‘green’ energy initiatives; effectively functioning cooperatives in agriculture, coffee, and women’s crafts; and community resources development. VISIONS is home-based in the northern mountain town of Jinotega, the strategic coffee production area, a tranquillo city encircled by out-lying small villages. Participants engage in intensely focused community work—from construction to agriculture to apprenticeships—with Nicaraguan artisans, farmers, and others. No trip to Nicaragua is complete without an excursion to Central America’s oldest city of Granada, an inviting metropolis featuring stately old colonial-era buildings painted in an array of pastels, great restaurants, Spanish schools, and a four-star hotel on the plaza. This program has a minimum requirement of two years of high school Spanish.

Staff

The backbone of a safe, high-quality program is the leadership. VISIONS maintains a staff-student ratio of 1:4. The average age of leaders is mid-to-late 20s and upward. Roughly 50 percent of the leaders return each season. They are returned Peace Corps volunteers, outdoor wilderness experts, Ph.D. candidates and graduate students, teachers and other educators, and, sometimes, professionals from the host community. Experienced carpenters teach building skills. Program directors have proven leadership abilities and are veterans of previous VISIONS summers. All VISIONS leaders hold minimum First Aid and CPR certification; the majority hold advanced certifications (Wilderness First Aid, Wilderness First Responder, Lifeguard Training, Wilderness EMT). Some sites require these higher certifications.

Location

Background and Philosophy

Program Offerings

Enrollment

Staff

Costs

Financial Aid

Application Timetable