CIEE Gap Year in Santiago, DR – Mentoring Youth & Raising Social Awareness

Learned a lot and made memories. I feel impacted after my time with the kids. It was fun exploring the city, the DR is a place I fell in love with. Besides working with the children, my favorite part of this trip was the beach trips. We got to spend quality time with everyone else on the trip and enjoy the nice beaches of the DR. Going to museums and learning about the history of the DR was also very interesting. The food that I ate and the host family that I stayed with was one of the best parts of this trip. Would recommend.

I loved spending time with the kids and everything they taught me .Learning about a new culture and meeting new people was so impactful in helping me open up my mindset even more. Working with the kids and being part of a new culture does make some kind of impact on the kids as well as on you! There were many different adventures and activities that made the experience even more fun! There were times where the leaders weren’t as communicative as they should’ve been but it can always be improved.

I loved working with the kids because it was so fun and full filling. I also loved my host family because they were the sweetest and covered our every need. However, the schedule was not accurate and it felt disorganized. We also did not have much free time to explore, and had to go to many museums that felt slightly pointless. One of my favorite things was the weekend excursions to the beach because we got to experience more parts of the country. The food took some getting used to, but I have learned to love plantains and salami and will miss it.

I had a great time on this program. The kids are so fun to be around and waken you up in the morning. The program leaders and teachers are very friendly and supportive. Going to museums or having time with your homestay in the afternoon adds more excitement. Homestays have great food and are willing to try to communicate. Loved my time on program in Santiago. Spanish class and leadership class help you interact with people. Santiago will definitely be missed by everyone who went on this program.

I definitely think that planning and leadership could use some work. More freedom and better preparation could also have been nice. Laura the group leader was AMAZING, but Justine should not be asked back because she obviously did not care about the kids or want to be there. Randolp was great but could definitely use some help. Housing has almost no complaints because it was obvious that all host families truly cared. The group we worked with the kids was super great and I definitely recommend continuing this in the future.