New Heights Charter School of Brockton recently completed its fifth annual educational service trip to Puerto Plata, a province in the Dominican Republic. The initiative brings New Heights teachers and rising high school seniors into local classrooms to teach underserved Dominican and Haitian-Dominican elementary and middle school students English language skills.

Omari Walker, co-founder and Executive Director of New Heights is a passionate educator on a mission to make college accessible to every child. He founded the Puerto Plata Initiative to help extend this mission beyond New Heights. This English language service learning project brings the New Heights community and local educators together to help build a brighter future for students in need.

Originally launched in Cangrejo, the program moved two years ago to Caraballo, a small rural community in the municipality of Villa Montellano. Every summer, for four weeks, a group of New Heights teachers and rising high school seniors pack their bags and travel to Puerto Plata to teach alongside local educators.

Fabiola Parra, who has taught in Caraballo for more than two years, shared her thoughts on how her students benefit from the summer academic and enrichment program. “I think this program will help my students a lot,” she said. She pointed to the impact of both the enrichment and academic components of the program and highlighted how the commitment and dedication of New Heights teachers and staff have contributed to a successful learning experience. She added that her students love learning new languages and that having “teachers from the United States” come to teach them during the summer “is very important.”

The experience is equally transformative for participating New Heights students. Within the first two days, the high school students begin building deep connections with the children they serve. Isabella D. Oliveira, a rising senior who served as a teaching assistant, explained how the local students changed her perspective.

“These students want to be here. It is refreshing when you see kids who want to come to school; they want to learn; and they actively participate,”said Oliveira.

Despite the financial, academic, and social challenges they face daily, these students refuse to lose hope. They relentlessly pursue their academic goals and remain optimistic about their future. The experience reminded Isabella how fortunate she is to have access to the resources she needs to succeed academically back home in the United States. She acknowledged that the students she served for four weeks taught her far more than she could have imagined.

Josephine Farah, an eighth-grade teacher at New Heights who participated in the program for the first time, highlighted the dual benefits of the experience.

“For our students, the impact that it has on them is a real-world experience,” she said. She also noted that witnessing the local children’s living conditions, alongside their passion for learning, encourages New Heights students to appreciate the educational resources available to them at home. “As for kids in Caraballo, some of them don’t get the chance to go to school past elementary or middle school. So, this program is really setting them up for success,” Farah explained.

Nathanael Tavares, a rising senior at New Heights who spent the final two weeks of the program working as a teaching assistant, emphasized the need for continued funding and expansion of programs like these. “I think what New Heights is doing is very good. I think these students really need this program.”

Humbled by the community’s hospitality and inspired by the students he worked with, Tavares encouraged those who support the initiative financially to continue their contributions.“Your money is helping these students more than you think and can change their lives forever,” he said. He hopes New Heights will eventually be able to expand the program to additional countries, bringing its model of academic enrichment, service learning, and cross-cultural exchange to even more students.

This year, the program brought the entire Caraballo community together for a shared meal and celebration to wrap up the program’s success, providing an opportunity to celebrate the connections formed throughout the summer.

New Heights remains committed to equipping students with both the academic tools and real-world experiences necessary to succeed in college and beyond. Through programs like its Puerto Plata initiative, New Heights is demonstrating that its mission—preparing its students for college—extends far beyond the classroom, transforming lives at home and beyond.