Everyone's A Critic is online!

 The reviews are in for week number one! It's a hit! 

After seeing theatre in Boston and Hartford, art at the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Wadsworth Museum and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, dance at the Boston Ballet, and two films in the RMPAC Cinema at LA, students posted critiques of what they've seen and heard. 

You can read the reviews here: 

http://everyonesacriticla.blogspot.com/

Service in the Sun - Dominican Republic

We heard from the leaders who are working with our students in the Dominican Republic yesterday (Friday). Definitely check out the FB link they provide to see more photos. Below the photo is the letter we received.

Dear Parents,

We wanted to take a few minutes and send you a quick update from the ground in the Dominican Republic. Your kids have been hard at work this week cleaning, painting, gardening and beautifying the brand new Mariposa Center for Girls here in Cabarete. Everyone is happy, healthy and in good spirits.

We are very impressed with all of their dedication to the project and amazing attitudes that they bring to work everyday. This week we had the opportunity to visit some of the homes of the children in our programs, which proved to be an eye opening experience for everyone. Tomorrow they will head to the Mirabal Museum in Salcedo to learn all about the national heroines of the Dominican Republic, The Mirabal Sisters. On Sunday they will spend the day fishing, relaxing at the beach and immersing themselves in the Dominican culture.

We are having a wonderful time working with and getting to know your children, they are doing a great job!

If you're on Facebook, we'll be regularly updating our page with photos from their trip while they are here. "Like" us at https://www.facebook.com/MariposaDRFoundation.

More updates from the field soon!

Sincerely,

Patricia & Jessica

Jessica R. Lawson
Co-Founder, Associate Director
The Mariposa DR Foundation
www.mariposadrfoundation.org

LA Sportscasters

The Sports Journalism group braved the snow on Thursday night to attend the Bruins game at the TD Garden in Boston, MA. Check out their blog to see some more photos and comments from the group. (The Bruins beat the Maple Leafs 4 to 2.) According to their itinerary they may also catch a Boston Celtics game as well.  Next week they head to NYC for the Big East Tournament and a visit to the NBC Sports Network.

Service in the Sun - Costa Rica

Our group in Costa Rica is NOT experiencing snow, rain, wind and cold weather. It is quite the opposite right now for them - in the mid 80's, sunny and partly cloudy with no rain even in the forecast for the next few days!  They get to live with families in the area so they are immersed in the cultural for two weeks.

They are working for the Cloud Forest School in Monteverde, Costa Rica.  Direct from their website, the school's mission is:  to nurture generations of ecologically aware, academically well-rounded bilingual individuals. We will work to provide students with the knowledge, values and skills needed to make environmentally and socially conscious decisions on a local, national and global scale.

Check out this slide show of the school's grounds and surrounding area to get a more "visuals" on where our students have been working for the past week.

Our students have been helping with trail maintenance and development in the local forest and learning about the local ecosystem by visiting waterfalls and gardens. They also took an evening hike on Wednesday night (while we had a snowfall!). This weekend the plan is for them to visit hot springs by riding to them on horseback and also ride a zip-line to have a better view of the canopy of the deep forest they are exploring.

A Little Head Start Helps

Clip art from acclaimclipart.com 

We have not heard much from this group, but working with young kids, often from families who are struggling, it is likely they are exhausted at the end of their day.  Head Start is a program which serves children from low-income families by providing pre-school and early education through year round programs. LA students are spread out between sites in both Lowell and Lawrence. This is the largest Winterim Group, with about 34 students and 4 faculty members. There are enough young children in the Head Start programs that we could probably send more each year.