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September 23, 2016Requesting airfare as a 17th birthday gift doesn’t seem that abnormal. But requesting airfare to travel to the Dominican Republic for a service trip is not a typical teenage request. But then again, VASJ senior Lara Pagenderm-Winter ’17 is not a typical teenager.
VASJ is committed to helping students grow spiritually, academically, and personally, and teaching the importance of service to others is one of the ways in which the school’s mission is achieved.
For Lara, it was the emphasis on service during her religion classes which led her to feel called to do service work outside of the U.S.
“I’ve always had this feeling that I wanted to do [a service trip],” Lara says. “I’ve always had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I should travel and help someone else out somewhere else in the world.”
During her junior year, Lara signed up for VASJ’s Service Learning program, a partnership with the school’s neighbor Hospice of the Western Reserve. She could have been taking a study hall during that time, catching up on her homework and studying for tests.
Lara saw it differently.
“Why take a study hall when I could be doing something more meaningful?,” Lara says.
Mature beyond her years, she has experienced heartbreaking situations at Hospice, and handled them with poise and strength.
“Right now I am actually working with a terminally-ill baby, talking to her, holding her and making her feel comfortable,” Lara says.
Her experiences at Hospice, helping others in need, led her to want to do more.
“It definitely stemmed from my work at Hospice,” Lara says of her interest in participating in a service learning program abroad.
While volunteering at Hospice one day, Lara introduced herself to another volunteer who shared her experiences taking several service trips to Haiti.
“She provided me with the encouragement I needed to sign up,” Lara says.
After that conversation, Lara was committed to taking a similar service trip. She just needed to figure out where and how.
“I started researching how I could do it,” Lara says. “I literally just googled, ‘service trips for high school students.’”
After searching for a while, she found Rustic Pathways, an organization which aims to empower students through innovative and responsible travel experiences to positively impact lives and communities around the world.
“I just felt comfortable with it and it was specifically this trip that I really, really wanted to go on,” Lara says. “I think it’s because it had a little bit of everything.”The trip was to Jarabacoa and Sabana de la Mar, Dominican Republic, where she would have opportunities to explore the island and experience the local culture there while also working a project that would improve the lives of the residents there.
“I enjoyed the aspect of helping the environment out and working on such a large-skill building project and being able to help others in a meaningful way,” Lara says.
Lara was there for the second week of a five-week project. The project was to construct a black water treatment system designed to reduce pollution in the Yaque River there.
“When we arrived the hole was dug essentially,” Lara says. “It was huge. Basically it consists of three chambers that clean the sewage waste from the toilets before putting the water back in the river.”
The river is used for people to wash their clothes and for swimming. It is very obvious why cleaning the river water of waste is important. And Lara was excited to be a part of it.
“My goal was to make a difference in someone’s life,” Lara says. “I wanted to be able to get back on the plane and come home knowing I helped someone else.”
She spent her 17th birthday in the Dominican Republic with strangers who had become family.
“I got to mix cement for the black water treatment system in the morning and go white water rafting in the afternoon,” Lara says of her birthday. “They had a huge surprise birthday celebration for me after dinner which was an incredible experience.”
She had heard it said many times before her trip, “don’t take things for granted,” but her trip to the Dominican Republic gave the phrase a whole new meaning.
“You really don't even have an idea of how lucky you are to have what you have until you see what other parts of the world don't have,” Lara says.
Between the language barriers, the high temperatures and the humidity, each day of working on the water treatment system got more exhausting. In addition to building the water treatment system It was hard work.
But the hardest part for Lara, was leaving the Dominican Republic.
“Coming home was without a doubt the most challenging,” Lara says. “It was hard for me to wake up in the morning knowing I wasn't going to be able to serve the Dominican Republic. My first weeks back all I could think about doing was jumping on another plane back.”
Needless to say she is already planning her next trip.
“Service trips open your eyes to the rest of the world,” Lara says. “I believe that if you give something like this your full attention you can gain so much. It’s so important because your perspective will be changed and you will never be able to see things the same way again.”
For her next service trip, during spring break of her senior year, Lara has her eyes on Figi where she would like to go to help children in the schools there.
“I cannot stress enough how satisfying it is to help and become a part of a community thousand of miles away,” Lara says. “You always have something more than someone else does so no matter what you always have a reason to give back to someone else.”
