The DREAM Project’s Academic Year Volunteer Program has helped shape our DREAM alumni into who they are today. Past and current volunteers have expressed the many benefits of the program, including increased Spanish language skills, independence, professional development, cultural sensitivity, event planning and fundraising skills, and curriculum planning, in addition to valuable classroom experience. Whether you plan on a teaching career or not, the DREAM Project’s volunteer program is a great resume builder that will help lead you to success in future endeavors. Take a look at how it has helped past volunteers:
Kathleen Bertrand (Summer Camp 2009, Academic Year 2009-2010)
http://greatnonprofits.org/users/reviews/53521
I came upon the DREAM Project while searching for a fun, feel good way to start off my summer. I had just graduated college, and signed up to volunteer at their annual five week summer camp. It didn’t take much time for me to make connections with the community. I became passionate and determined to understand the culture, the educational system, and the incredible individuals I’ve been fortunate to get to know. I decided 5 weeks was no where near enough time to make a difference; so I went back to Boston to pack up my things and signed on as a year long volunteer with DREAM. It was the best decision I have ever made, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Laura Siegle (Academic Year Program, Spring and Summer 2010)
Now months after I have left the D.R. and my volunteer position with DREAM, I think of my experience and the experiences of the students I taught nearly every day. As a DREAM volunteer in Cabarete, I felt graciously accepted and welcomed into the Callejón community while feeling like I had an impact on it -- and its future -- each day. I also gained an intimate look at the inadequacies of the Dominican public education system, and an understanding of the enormous difference DREAM’s programs make in the lives of students that must navigate it.
DREAM’s dedication to educational change was inspiring to witness and be a part of. Knowing that my students would otherwise not have access to resources and courses DREAM offered, such as art classes, the public library, and computers, for example, made each day and each class seem valuable, and DREAM’s work feel urgent. Becoming a part of the Callejón community in Cabarete was also transformative for me. The warm welcome I received from neighbors and families, and their tremendous appreciation for DREAM was unlike anything I had experienced before. For me, the greater understanding of Dominican culture the community offered meant a greater understanding of kindness and the value of those things which are truly important in life at an essential level.
Perhaps most inspiring for me was the experience of Summer Camp. In the planning stages prior to camp, I can’t remember how many times it crossed my mind that it would be nearly impossible to accomplish what we sought to. I was intimidated by the number of components -- programs, systems, schedules and people -- that would have to fall into place in order for camp to run smoothly. Difficult as it was to admit, I was afraid that the camp we envisioned was simply too ambitious. All my apprehensions were proved dramatically incorrect as soon as camp began. I had never seen so many people from so many different places and diverse backgrounds come together to accomplish one common goal. What had seemed perhaps overly ambitious one week seemed unquestionable the next, as I witnessed the hard work, passion, and dedication of DREAM’s Summer Camp volunteers and staff. Each day of camp left me nearly in a state of disbelief; I could not believe how valuable each day, each class, and each experience was for every student and the tremendous teamwork involved in providing these opportunities. I wondered enthusiastically about the impact the experience of camp would have on a camper’s coming school year and years to come.
Ultimately, my experience with DREAM left me determined to pursue a career in the field of education. Now interested in exploring the effects of education policies and school reform efforts in the United States, particularly those that impact Dominican and Latino immigrant students, I have entered a graduate program in Sociology and Education at Columbia Teachers College in New York. I look forward to applying my experience with DREAM towards working to provide improved educational opportunities for under-served students in the U.S., and will be forever grateful to DREAM and the Callejón community for such a valuable volunteer experience.
Lindsey Parr (Summer Camp 2009 and Academic Year 2009-2010)
I am often asked about my year spent in the Dominican Republic volunteering with The DREAM Project. It is sometimes hard for me to formulate a response because I don’t know where to begin -- there is so much I want to convey in my reply. One thing is for certain, though: My time spent with DREAM has been the most rewarding experience of my life thus far.
Over the course of that year, I woke up every morning excited about the day ahead of me. I knew it would be filled with some of the most amazing children I have ever met and with meaningful work that makes a real difference in each of their lives. There would undoubtedly also be wandering chickens, sticky heat, roaring motos, many hugs and kisses from neighbors, and loud meringue music; but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
As you probably already know, the public education system in the Dominican Republic falls short of providing students with an adequate education. Students living in the communities that DREAM serves, lack the resources and opportunities many of us are familiar with and take for granted. In fact, many of the avenues that are available to them fall outside the realm of education and may not be very positive or healthy choices. Working with DREAM, you will dedicate your time to ensuring these children receive a quality education and reach their full potential. You will help them develop their talents as students, leaders, and responsible community members. You will inspire them to dream big and then reach those dreams. Can you imagine a better cause for which to dedicate your time?
DREAM works to affect change by empowering the children through education, by encouraging families to participate in and support their child’s education, and by involving the community in supporting its youth. Change is a gradual process, but I saw the wheels turning each day that I spent in the classroom with my students.
It is one thing to read this information here on DREAM’s website; it is another to visit and experience it first-hand; and still another thing altogether to take action, and spend your time working toward change in the Cabarete community and Dominican schools. If you are reading this, I urge you to consider volunteering with DREAM. I guarantee it will be one of the best decisions you ever make. It certainly was for me.
Caroline Stauffer (Academic Year 06-07)
http://www.cjonline.com/stories/081307/lif_190919852.shtml
Andrew Bennett (Academic Year 05-06)
My experience with DREAM has made me realize that I actually can make a difference in somebody else’s life. It is not a far off concept like one may think. It’s actually a very tangible real action that a person can do to affect somebody’s life in a positive way. I know this because this is what I did, this is what I experienced. And at the very same time my life was drastically affected by the kids that I worked with. They were changing the way I looked at myself and the life I have led. This was not a profound, life-changing action, but more of a friendship or bond that makes you see the world differently. It’s when you start to see the world through the eyes of another, and that’s really when the change happens. You have changed, and at the same time the kids you work with start to see the world though your eyes, and realize that there is so much out there beyond their barrio, and they have changed as well. And this is the magical point. This is the point when you have made a difference, when we see the world through each other’s eyes.
Lydia Gilbert (Academic Year 05-06)
An entire school year has gone by and the experience of a lifetime has transpired. I cannot thank you enough for the experience this year. I believe that words alone will not capture the appreciative tone with which I wish to give you thanks.
Working outside of Cabarete in Sabaneta at La Libertad gave me a keen perspective on the impact of globalization on small rural communities. While many of the community members of Villa Progresso work in the tourist industry (especially the booming town of Cabarete), the vast majority of people are cut out of the system. These people are left behind and are especially at a disadvantage without the education that they need to catch up to those ahead of them.
In the race of life, this pocket of the Dominican Republic does not need a head-start, but rather a fair-start: an opportunity to better their condition and finish with the rest of the world. By educating the children of Sabaneta, we may not be pushing the community forward leaps and bounds toward participation in the global economy, but slowly and surely we are uniting two disparate worlds and hopefully laying down the foundation that will give the future community the worldly perspective that it will need in the competitive market of tomorrow.
And while I probably will not see Sabaneta competing in the world race anytime soon, I will at least have helped a handful of first-graders to discover the joys of learning. Working with the children of La Libertad has been more than just an experience for me; it has been my life for the past nine months, given me a new worldly perception and truly changed my life course. I hope that people continue to support DREAM and all of their future endeavors because their cause is truly noble and their work incredibly remarkable. Thank you.
Annemarie Guzy (Academic Year 05-06)
Annemarie Guzy ’05 spent three months in the summer volunteering for the Dream Project, a nonprofit organization that works to improve the education of poor children in the Dominican Republic by donating supplies, building new facilities and placing volunteers in classrooms. Guzy, a music and English concentrator, taught at the La Colonia School and a summer camp. She shares her experience in this first-person account.
The La Colonia School is in a neighborhood called the Callejón de la Loma, located outside Cabarete, a town famous to tourists who have money for windsurfing and kitesurfing. The neighborhood, although only about a five-minute walk from the surfing schools and fancy bars and restaurants along the beach, is far removed from the bustling tourist strip. The roads aren’t paved, and dust flies through the air almost constantly from the traffic of the motoconchos -- motorcycles that provide the main transportation and zoom in and out taking passengers anywhere nearby for 10 pesos, or about 25 cents. Besides the roaring of the motoconchos, one can hear bachata -- a Dominican version of merengue -- playing loudly in the Callejón at just about any time of day or night. Most here, unlike those in Cabarete, don’t own electricity generators and thus can count on maybe three hours of electricity per day. Poverty is certainly present, although with such an easy-going, upbeat and positive energy, it doesn’t seem to prevent the residents from enjoying what they do have.
I arrived at the beginning of June, early enough to witness a few days of school life before final exams and summer vacation. The classrooms were minimal, with only a chalkboard, desks and chairs. There were no textbooks, no colored maps on the walls. … After bringing a few kids into their recently constructed library (consisting of about 100 books given to them by the Dream Project), I realized that most of them, even those as old as fourth grade, couldn’t really read or write … they hadn’t even learned how to recognize and name the letters, let alone be able to read words. … A large majority of the students fail the exams and are forced to repeat the grade.
Once exams were over, I offered a daily music/arts class to any child over the age of 5 who wanted to come. I had on average 15 to 20 students per day. At first, discipline was my biggest challenge. These kids were full of energy, and even with the often-overwhelming heat and humidity, they were always moving, always talking, always ready to do something else besides my music activities. They were also prone to fighting with each other and quarreling about supplies and whose turn it was to answer a question. But after about a week getting used to one another, the class settled down to listen and learn, and suddenly class time became about music and art, rather than sitting down and being quiet. So we sang, played rhythm and listening games, made musical instruments and drew pictures about music.
One day before class I was setting up for an art project while the kids were anxiously waiting outside the gate. They called to me, “Anamaria, Anamaria, estamos listos!” (“Annemarie, Annemarie, we’re ready!”) After I told them several times that I needed a few more minutes to prepare, they began another course of action to get my attention: They began to sing a scale in solfege, just as we had learned the day before. And if one child sang the wrong note, another would stop the group, and they’d begin again. It was an incredible feeling. Not only could I see that they had really grasped what I had taught them the day before, they were excited about their new understanding of music and what I could offer them. … Within a month’s time, my kids and I had come to a pretty solid understanding of one another. They rarely missed a class; they were proud to collect their drawings and paintings at the end of class, and they were excited to know what was coming up the next day.
Reid Gooch (Academic Year 05-06)
There is no substitute for getting on the plane. If you want to learn about our world and the world’s people you must go there and leave everything that is familiar, comfortable, and secure, settle down in a foreign land and jolt your reality, force yourself to soak in another place and adapt to it. Volunteering for the DREAM Project will give you this opportunity.
And when you’re doing that, when you’re walking through impoverished neighborhoods, experiencing the world’s average standard of living, you may become angry and frustrated and motivated to contribute your skill sets in order to help enrich the lives of those less fortunate than yourself and in some meaningful way positively influence their future. Volunteering for the DREAM Project will give you this opportunity also.
Looking back on my eleven months in the Dominican Republic, it is impossible to fully convey the enormity of the experience and how it impacted who I am now. As a DREAM Volunteer, I was placed in an incredibly hectic and unruly environment and challenged to make it better. In order to succeed I was forced to alter myself, become more conscious of how I interacted with people, be they students, teachers, parents, Dominicans, Haitians, or tourists. I had to overcome my own stereotypes and preconceived beliefs about foreign cultures while encouraging others to do the same. I learned to communicate trust, friendship, confidence, discipline, compassion, and comedy despite not always knowing the proper vocabulary. I witnessed first hand how a relatively small group of dedicated people has the potential to create real change in a community.
I returned to the United States with a renewed excitement about my life. The perspective I gained while working for the DREAM Project has deeply affected my future plans, directing me towards a lifetime involving myself with non-profit work. I recently began medical school, which will provide me with a universal skill set that can one day help me to help others who suffer in every part of the world, including the Dominican Republic. I will use it. The DREAM Project has shown me where to begin.
I often share my experience with people and they are jealous, wistfully remarking how they would have loved to have done something like that. They are right; they would have loved it. It is a life-changing experience. But it will not happen by itself. First you need to get on the plane.
Sophie Clifford (Spring 05)
I came to Cabarete with a strong desire to learn all there was to learn about the Dominican culture and pass on what I could to the children. Four months later, I leave Cabarete with the conviction that there is no better way to understand a community than to live and volunteer in it, and taking away precious memories of teaching in this environment.
Teaching in the school can be described as a rewarding challenge. The environment is challenging, as can be the children and the teachers. When my co-volunteer and I arrived in the school, we were taken aback by the way things were in the school. Classes seemed chaotic and break time can seem to be a war zone. But then, it is that difference with my normal environment, which made the experience all the more memorable. I had to first understand how things worked here, develop relationships with the teachers and the children and then seek to make a contribution.
Our contribution was to teach literacy and English in the school. The resourcefulness of the Dominicans is an admirable quality we tried to emulate. So in true Dominican style, despite our lack of training, we did the best we could with what we had. I had been warned on arrival that there would be days you would leave school wondering what was the point of being there. And there were some of those days. But what I am sure I will remember, and miss much more is the incredible affection of the students. Some children clearly come from difficult homes, where little attention and encouragement is given to them. It was a real pleasure, and privilege, to be able to give them a support they might be lacking. And then there were the occasional breakthroughs, when I felt a student had learnt something he would not otherwise have done had I not been there.
The whole experience has left me more committed to continue volunteering whenever and wherever possible, even if it is at home and not in a developing country.
Robert Baca (DREAM Program Coordinator 2004-2005)
After a year of working with the DREAM Project and two summer camps later, I must take my leave of the Dominican Republic. My experience here has seen the DREAM Project continue a sustained rapid development and expansion that is encouraging, exciting, and even overwhelming at times.
The DREAM Project, with our small, tightly knit staff and management, has realized some extremely substantial accomplishments over the last 12 months, too numerous to detail here. It is with every confidence that I part the country and look to the future of education in the Dominican Republic, and the DREAM Project’s ability to significantly impact and accelerate the quality of life within our communities.
I am proud of what has been accomplished here thus far, especially of a summer camp that was realized for a second year in a row. I feel despite every obstacle, it could honestly not have come out better and I am especially proud of my 130 kids- the accomplishment and the success of camp is theirs.
For those who may not have the privilege of visiting often or spending much time in and around our communities, I am honored to have been a part of them and will miss them with all my heart.
Follow 
