Report from the Field: F2F Volunteer Ryan Kesler at Jarabacoa Environmental School in the Dominican Republic - Part I

It has been just over three weeks since I arrived in the
Dominican Republic working for Farmer-to-Farmer and the National School of
Environment and Natural Resources in Jarabacoa and it feels like I’ve been busy
every moment. But, before I get into my experiences, I should probably tell you
all just who I am. My name is Ryan
Kesler and I am an undergrad student studying Spanish at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison (UW). It is my final semester at UW and I am fortunate enough
to spend it here in the DR. Here I get to practice not only my Spanish skills,
but also my teaching skills as I am helping the Environmental School
with their English classes. Thus far it has been an excellent experience and I
would like to share some of my experiences with you all.

For the first two weeks, I worked with Rick Hall and Maria
Moreno, two additional Farmer-to-Farmer volunteers based out of the
UW-Arboretum called Earth Partnership. Earth Partnership works with communities
both in Wisconsin and Latin America (through a project called Colaboración
Ambiental) to teach educators in methods of integrating a more environmentally
conscious curriculum into their schools. They have developed an entire course
guide of activities for educators to use to help students learn through
observing nature and constructing conservation projects such as rain gardens. The
first week here, we had a meeting at the National Botanical Gardens in Santo
Domingo to present the Earth Partnership curriculum to the director. Earth
Partnership is currently only working with the Environmental School but is
looking to expand to other local schools around Jarabacoa. During this first
week we also had meetings with three local schools to put the Earth Partnership
curriculum into action.

F2F volunteer, Rick Hall, leading a course with Jarabacoa students

During the second week, we coordinated times to do a few
activities from the Earth Partnership course guide with the students of the
environmental school. One of the activities we did is called “Noting Notable
Features”. In this activity, the students went out onto the school campus and
took observations from everything from soil type, to the slope of the landscape
to the diversity the fauna and flora in the area. It was a hot day but the
students seemed to really enjoy the activity.

After two weeks, Rick and Maria left and I have been on my
own (however I use the phrase “on my own” loosely). I have since moved into one
of the houses on the school grounds where I will be until the end of the
semester. Teaching English has proved to be challenging but rewarding as all
the students are on very different levels of English comprehension. In the
class itself, the students are working on projects around the school yard and
preparing presentations for the end of the semester. I am helping the current
English professor with working with the various groups. He has appreciated my
help as there are 38 students and he can’t get around to working with every
group every day. In addition to the normal English classes, I have been holding
group discussions in English every week as a way to gain extra practice. The
students seem to be really enjoying it but I’d be lying if I said I’m not
enjoying it more! I am really looking forward to seeing their progress
throughout the semester.

I want to thank you all for reading the first of 3 blog posts that I will be
making during my time here. See you next time!

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