A team of Deerfield students will travel to the Dominican Republic to build a house for a family in the village of Lavapie with the organization Cambiando Vidas. When work begins, the house will be one cinderblock high. On day five, the house will be finished — complete with running water and electricity. On the final night, the team will share the first dinner in the house with the family and the 100+ members of the community who worked on the house. This will be Deerfield’s 12th house build in the DR.
May 30 – June 7, 2022
This trip is open to current 9th, 10th, and 11th grade students with a preference towards those with a demonstrated interest in service. All interested students are encouraged to apply by March 27. Financial aid is available to all qualifying students.
Deerfield Academy’s Center for Service and Global Citizenship is committed to running all of our travel programs at cost with overhead expenses subsidized by the Academy.
*This itinerary is subject to change.
May 30: Travel to a hotel near a NY Airport. Spend the night preparing for the trip.
May 31: Fly to Santo Domingo, DR and travel to San Juan de la Maguana, making stops along the way to better understand the island’s geography, history, and culture
June 1 – June 5: Build a house and build new relationships while learning about the culture and history of the Dominican Republic
June 6: Travel to Santo Domingo and spend the day exploring this historical city. Final team dinner that night.
June 7: Travel from Santo Domingo to NY airport**
**Families are responsible for transportation from the U.S. airport to the student’s final destination at the end of the trip.
At the end of the trip, faculty trip leaders Sheryl Koyama and Bob Graves, asked students to provide final reflections on what they had learned and experienced during their time in the Dominican Republic. Below are excerpts of students responses.
Garret DeMallie ’21, Connor Guest ’20, and Francis Gannon Jr. ’21 describe the “meaningful” connections they’ve made within the community and the “life lessons” they’ve learned during their time in the DR.
Trip leaders Kris Loftus and Erin Hutchinson share the group’s final reflections from a week in the Dominican Republic!
Annabel Gerber ’20, Cameron Garner ’19, and Nolan Zusi ’19 share the groups activities on their last day at the work site.
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