2005 CIEE Awards
CIEE Program Excellence Award
A central goal of the CIEE Study Center in Santiago, Dominican Republic is for students to take part in community life outside of Santiago through community service opportunities. One of the ways that this is accomplished is through Work Retreats, overnight retreats that require students to work alongside community members on a weekend-long project. This activity also tests the students’ adaptability to Dominican rural reality as accommodations are rustic, often with no running water.
CIEE has been working with the Jardín de los Niños, a home for marginalized children, since the mid-1990s. Projects at this site have included painting the new community’s library and cultural center and constructing a much needed latrine for the center. CIEE students work side by side with older children from the home and community members who volunteered their time. After their community service work, CIEE participants often enjoy swimming and playing in the river with the kids. In the evenings, the children at Jardin de los Niños present musical numbers, skits, and games—all of which create a lasting and profound exchange between CIEE students, the children, and the community.
Dr. Lynne Guitar, Resident Director, has offered encouragement to students to participate in these activities and provided much support to staff for their continued development, particularly to Elaine Acacio de Polo, Assistant Resident Director, who has been instrumental in creating this innovative service project.
CIEE Student Recognition Award
Leah Rubinsky, University of Colorado at Boulder
Trevanna Grenfell, Tufts University
CIEE Study Center in Dakar, Senegal Academic Year 2004– 2005
During their year in Dakar, Leah Rubinsky and Trevanna Grenfell maintained outstanding academic records and brought an optimistic and thoughtful presence to the classroom. During their second semester, they engaged in a unique internship with an organization called 10,000 Girls. The organization is located in Kaolack, a region of Senegal where the school drop out rate for girls is especially high (only 1% of girls who enter primary school finish high school). The main focus of the organization is an after school support program for over 170 girls and vocational and entrepreneurial training. As part of CIEE’s internship/community service course, Leah and Trevanna embarked twice a month on the long and bumpy 3–5 hour journey to Kaolack and spent the weekend working with the girls, staying in their homes, speaking Wolof, sharing meals, teaching lessons, and trying to better understand their daily lives, backgrounds, and hardships.
It is this self-starting attitude and relentless energy that makes these young women stand out among the many successful internship and service projects conducted each semester. In addition to the time they devoted listening and encouraging individual girls’ aspirations, they organized etiquette and health lessons, lasting links to service organizations in the United States, regular donations of clothing and school supplies from fellow CIEE students, and an art class promoting self-confidence through self-portraits. Their internship culminated with an outstanding Career Day, held at Suffolk University, introducing the girls to educational opportunities and allowing them to meet professional women working as lawyers, cashiers, doctors, and politicians. Leah and Trevanna managed to find funding and donations for the entire excursion. One student was so inspired by the career day that she worked day and night to achieve baccalaureate results that will allow her to attend Suffolk University on scholarship next year! The positive influence that Trevanna and Leah had on the young women in Kaolack will be long-lasting.
Both the CIEE Program Excellence Award and the CIEE Student Recognition Award was presented at the Annual Luncheon, Thursday, November 17.