The cafeteria was loud with the sound of children as Alternative Choices in Education (ACE) students and middle schoolers from La Escuela Café con Leche ate together after a morning of learning English and math.
Five ACE students and two teachers traveled to the Dominican Republic over February break to help teach and do general community work at La Escuela Café con Leche, a small community school in Santo Domingo, on a service trip. While the ten-day trip mainly focused on teaching and working with the La Escuela Café con Leche, ACE students also visited the Tres Ojos Historical Botanical Garden and Playa de Palenque beach.
The trip was mainly organized by ACE math teacher Julie James. She started the trip last year because of her connection with the head of La Escuela Café con Leche. The school, which was originally just a group of ten kids and three teachers, has grown into a large, government-funded school serving around 825 students.
“The person who started the school is someone that I know. So I knew that the history of the school, and the most important part of the school, for me, is that they started their own school for their own community,” James said. “It was a grassroots school that now is funded by the government.”
Taking two years of Spanish was a requirement for students interested in the trip. Junior Nadia Conteh said her favorite part of the trip was helping teach students English and math.
“For me, a favorite [moment] was going to the school. [I loved seeing] all of the kids because I got to see some of them that I knew last year again. They’re just really cute and really eager to learn,” Conteh said.
Senior Natasha Griffin went on the trip as part of her senior capstone project, a culminating project throughout senior year that is designed to help people.
“[There’s] a lack of quality healthcare in [the] Dominican Republic. I organized a first aid medical supplies drive to bring over to the Dominican Republic,” Griffin said.“I gave it to a doctor that works in a little clinic.”
According to James, organizing trips is difficult because of a lack of funding. There is no official school fund to finance trips like this. As a result, they only happen because of money given by the administration. Even with this money there is still additional money that needs to be raised separately by the people going on the trip.
According to James, one of the issues with organizing trips like this is a lack of funding. Without an official school fund, trips such as this one happen because of money allocated by the administration, which puts strain on the budget. Even with the money given by the administration, there is a substantial amount that needs to be fundraised for separately.
“The burden of the fundraising is a super big time commitment on behalf of the students themselves and the organizers. You don’t get paid to run a school trip. I would absolutely do it because I believe in the value of this particular service that we do in the Dominican Republic and what the kids get out of it. So, for me, it’s worth it, and it’s meaningful,” James said.
Junior Abigail Guerrero went on the trip and said that the La Escuela Café con Leche was an essential part of the community. Without it, many students would not be able to get basic necessities such as food.
“They told us that a lot of the kids don’t come from a family that’s able to fund them, give them food and everything like that. So the lunch that we served was some kids’ only food for the day,” Guerrero said. “A lot of the kids would come to school just to eat.”
Spanish teacher Pedro Méndez was a chaperone on the trip. He said there was a very unique feeling of community when working at the school.
“The kids [in La Escuela Café con Leche], as well as the kids in ACE, were there just to give to the community,” Méndez said. “The kids in DR were basically saying, ‘this is what we have, we can offer you guys some of what we have.’ Not necessarily something material, but a laugh, a hug, a thank you note, song, a dance or a high five. It was a magical moment for me.”
