West Hollow Middle School Special Ed Teacher Volunteers at an Orphanage

Some people spent their February break skiing or snowboarding. Others went someplace tropical. 

Angelica Conway, a second-year special education teacher at West Hollow Middle School, did go someplace warm and sunny, but it wasn't to relax.

Conway spent the week teaching English to elementary school students in Montecristi, Dominican Republic. She was volunteering with an organization called Orphanage Outreach.

She said, "I've wanted to do something like this for a while. So I looked into the different organizations that were out there, and I liked this one the best, especially because they were helping children in an orphanage."

She didn't stay in a fancy hotel either. She wasn't in a hotel at all, but stayed on the grounds of the orphanage. 

"It was like outdoor living," Conway said. "It looked like chicken coops or huts. We slept in bunk beds with mosquito netting and had cold showers."

She had to get shots and take malaria pills before going, as well. 

When she knew that she was going, Conway sent around an email asking everyone in her school and in the community for donations for the children. She received so many items--from canned goods, to clothing and sporting equipment--that she had to have it all shipped down to the Dominican. 

On the plane ride down there, she met a group from Canada, a group of college students who were also going there. 

"I introduced myself to them and hung out with them. They were 85 college students who were on their spring break from school in Canada, who also were going to volunteer. There was also a group from Seattle. I had planned on going down there alone, but it was also nice to have people to hang out with too," Conway said. 

When the volunteers were not teaching English at local public schools, they had the opportunity to spend time with children who live at the orphanage adjacent to where they were staying. Conway enjoyed using this time to read stories to the children in their native language of Spanish.

"I also got to go on hikes through the mountains and did some other sightseeing," she said. 

In the classrooms, Conway got to teach students how to express their feelings in English by exposing them to various emotion-related words.

"The students loved acting out the emotions and were excited to learn English for the first time," she said.

Conway had done some volunteering here, in the United States, and had traveled abroad before, but she had never volunteered abroad or done anything like this. But she loved it. 

"I loved it and would absolutely do it again. In fact, I hope to do it again this summer," Conway said. 

West Hollow seventh and eighth graders, who were part of an afterschool club, made quilts and drawstring bags for the Dominican children. The club is run by the Family and Consumer Science department: Marion Gooden, Debra Bykoff and Bea Reiser, explained assistant principal Bob Newton. 

"These afterschool clubs gives us a chance to teach the children about teamwork, give them a sense of community and help develop their character," Newton said.