Amelia Stuart Capstone

For my capstone I made a website about SLA’s spring break service trip to the Dominican Republic. I started by writing blog posts documenting each day of service we had; I wrote about what we did, what I saw, the people we met, and how it made me think about the contrast of my life compared to theirs. I collected photos from other people who went on the trip, and along with the photos that are throughout the website, I created a photo gallery that shows more of what we observed in the different communities.

Something really important to me was to include a page on the Dominican immigration crisis, and a page dedicated to preparing future students going on these trips. For the page on the migration crisis I wrote a short paragraph detailing what happened in the Dominican government, and how it affected the descendants of undocumented Haitian immigrants.  For the page dedicated to preparing future students I included three sections: Fundraising, Packing, and What to Expect. I wanted to help students get a better idea of how to fundraise for these types of programs, how to pack, and what to expect. Because they’re all things that I really needed more information on.

I hope that this can be a continuous project, and that students who go on trips like these in the future will add their own trip onto the website. I think that would be a really cool legacy for service trips at SLA, as well as a resource for kids who can’t go on these trips. One of the main reasons I wanted to do this website was so that people could see what I experienced through my own words.