2016 is a year that I’ve experienced a lot. I can honestly say that I’ve grown from every experience this year has brought. I am a junior and this is the year I’ve finally chosen a major as Social Work. I’ve also chose to go on a service-learning abroad trip to the Dominican Republic. As a social work major this service-learning experience helped me understand the importance of community service. This experience introduced me to a world much bigger than mine; this was my first time out of the country with people I just met. Being in the Dominican Republic I toured the beautiful country and learned about their history, along with experiencing their culture and delicious food. With this experience I’ve met some amazing people in the Dominican Republic, I’ve interacted with the community in many ways such as planting yucca for an impoverished area with people from the community, attended concerts experiencing their music, and played with the children. I went to three different cities in the Dominican Republic such as Santo Domingo, Consuelo, and Los Llanos. When I wasn’t volunteering in nursing homes, with the children, and on the fields I was having fun exploring the cities, hiking, and I went to the beach. Through this program I’ve met wonderful people in Santo Domingo who I will never forget such as Padre’ who was kind enough to let us stay at his center in Los Llanos, Esther who made her hotel feel like home in Santo Domingo, Marcel who was basically our tour guide for a week, and the 11 people I will forever remember after experiencing this amazing trip. I think that everyone should experience an amazing opportunity that I was blessed to experience.