The visions blog

Dig deeper into stories of friendships, community and projects.

Retired Programs

The Same, but Completely Different: Repeat Summers with VISIONS

Molly Povich is a VISIONS all-star. She has been to three very different summer community service programs, including travel to Cambodia, Ecuador and Montana's Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. Recently she took some time to reflect on the similarities and...

Service: More than a Checkbox on a Resume

The debate over whether teens should use their summer community service travel programs as material for college essays has been ongoing ever since "voluntourism" became a mainstream activity.  A VISIONS teen alum was recently featured in Newton North (MA) High...

Connecting with the Culture in Ecuador

An Essay by VISIONS Service Adventures Alumna Darya Alvarez I remember first telling people my plans to travel to Ecuador for the summer, and many of them asked me why I was doing something like that. I thought about this for a long time. I love traveling to some of...

Talk the Talk & Walk the Walk

Travel Tips: VISIONS Alumni Share Their Best Tips from Summer Programs If you've traveled for a VISIONS Service Adventures program before, you understand how much you can learn from a summer away from home. Yes, service projects are at the core. But they're in equal...

Two VISIONS Summers, Two Very Different Cultures

Lizzie Edwards, a high school student and teen volunteer from Portland, Oregon, recently wrapped up a summer service adventure with VISIONS Ecuador & Galapagos. It was her second VISIONS summer, and a world away from her first program in Cambodia. Next up? Myanmar...

PARTNER HIGHLIGHT: GALÁPAGOS NATIONAL PARK

A Glimpse at Ecuador’s First National Park Located 600 miles west of Ecuador lies an infamous group of islands, perhaps some of the most famous in the world, thanks to one Charles Darwin. Discovered in the mid-1500s, one of the first explorers to map these islands...