A Life of Choice

Throughout the world, the emphasis on education greatly varies. The economic status of a country has a direct correlation with how much funding there is to meet the educational needs of their youth. In the Dominican Republic, there was a law passed in 1997 to allocate 4% of gross domestic product (GDP) to education. The government, however, is only allocating 2.4% of GDP to education. This makes the education system in Dominican Republic the third least funded in our hemisphere. The only countries with less funding are Haiti at 1.4% and Ecuador at 1%. Over 1/3 of the population is living in poverty. The only way to break the cycle of poverty is through education, but that emphasis is missing. Although schooling is free in the Dominican Republic, enrollment is minimal. This is due to location, poverty, and the lack of birth certificates. Prospective students are restricted by the inability to travel to school, being forced into child labor to support their family, or there is simply no record of them because their family could not afford a birth certificate when they were born. In addition, without proper funding the Dominican Republic is said to lack 11,000 classrooms, 75,000 teachers, pre-school, room for five to seven year olds that wish to attend school, and programs for the disabled. With this comes the digital divide. The digital divide is the inequality of access to information technology. While schools in the United States are integrating technology in the classroom, schools in Dominican Republic are few and far between and do not have access to technology.  

Nonprofits, such as Outreach 360, have been established to help mitigate the severe lack of funding for education in the Dominican Republic. Outreach 360 is an organization that strives to provide children the opportunity to live a life of choice. Through the education we have received throughout our lives, we have been given countless opportunities. We had the choice to attend college or get a job. We have a choice of major and to stay in school. The children in the Dominican Republic are not granted those same opportunities because of the lack of funding for education. This December, I will be traveling to the Dominican Republic for this organization. The title of my trip is "Shattering the Cycle: Empowering Youth Through Education".  I will be creating my own lesson plans and teaching students English, literacy, and health. Although I will only be there for two weeks, it is the collection of the waves of volunteers that will ultimately lead to change.

I believe that this incredible opportunity will ultimately change my life for the better. In 74 days, I will be immersed in a new culture with different values. I will meet many people with different means than my own. I will see first hand what poverty truly means. I will grow an understanding of what it means to live a life without choice. Above all, I hope to make a difference in the lives of the students I teach and the people I meet along the way.