Darlington School: Private Boarding School in Georgia Liu to spend summer serving others through VISIONS program
Darlington School: Private Boarding School in Rome, GA
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Liu to spend summer serving others through VISIONS program

May 22, 2017 | 304 views

This summer, rising junior Zhaoyang "Jollyoung" Liu will travel to the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana with VISIONS Service Adventures, an international community service program for teens. Liu will join other high school students from around the world on a Plains Indian Reservation, where they will live in the community, tackle ambitious service projects, enjoy adventures and explore the surrounding area, and get to know the local customs and traditions.

“Students arrive with the intent of contributing to underserved communities and end up a part of that community,” said Katherine Dayton, executive director of VISIONS. “Here, students are able to build relationships with other participants, mentors, and community members, and they get to step out of their comfort zones, do something different, and have experiences that create lifelong impact.”

Together with a local non-profit, students will renovate a house on the conservation ranch where they live, turning it into an environmental education center. Other carpentry projects include building wheelchair ramps and weatherization improvements for community elders. In addition to construction, students will partner with the Nature Conservancy and MT Conservation Corps to remove invasive plant species. This will be the 26th VISIONS summer in Montana.

In the afternoons and on weekends, students have the opportunity to travel regionally and explore their home base area. In Montana, students will attend a powwow and meet with tribal leaders and historians before going to a sweat lodge. They will also spend time backpacking in Glacier National Park as well as enjoying shorter outdoor excursions, including horseback riding, wildlife viewing, and a rock climbing trip.

All programs are overseen by adult leaders and long-time local partners who guide and teach the students in hands-on construction and other development projects. Beyond completing service projects, the summer is an opportunity for students to explore the idea of community in both a local and global sense.

“VISIONS is not about construction projects,” explained long-time program leader David Kramer. “It is about deconstructing how we view the world and then framing a new vision upon the foundation of real experience with a global perspective.”

VISIONS has been running high school and middle school volunteer travel experiences since 1989, and is well known for programs that are centered on ambitious projects in cross-cultural settings. Locations include Alaska, the British Virgin Islands, Cambodia, Mississippi, the Montana Blackfeet and Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservations, Myanmar (Burma), the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and the Galapagos, Nicaragua, Peru, and Guadeloupe.