Our stories
Aubrey Sclarandis
B.S.W. senior and study abroad participant
“Turned out it was the best 10 days I ever spent.”
- Aubrey Sclarandis
Take a risk. Something in Aubrey Sclarandis told her to listen to her friend.
So in May 2007, Sclarandis, a then-junior in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work, stepped out of her comfort zone along with 16 students and faculty and traveled to the Dominican Republic to work with the Community Service Alliance, a non-governmental organization based in Santo Domingo.
“Turned out it was the best 10 days I ever spent,” Sclarandis said.
The group devoted their first few days to working at an orphanage in the Colonial Region, assisting in educational activities such as reading to the children, creating crafts and producing a play in honor of Mother’s Day.
Later in the week the volunteers ventured to Hato Mayor, a batey community of Haitian and Dominican sugar cane cutters and their families, and Sclarandis met Sofia Acevedo.
“When I met Sofia, I knew, she was like the Mother Theresa of the Dominican Republic,” Sclarandis said.
In one tiny room, Acevedo teaches up to 80 7-, 8- and 9-year-old orphans, all refugees from Haiti. Without any outside funds or supplies, she relies on creativity to provide an education for these students and help them obtain a birth certificate — the key to gaining their Dominican citizenship and a public education.
Sclarandis explained the search process can be taxing and incredibly expensive, but she knows the children appreciate the time and effort Acevedo and the volunteers invest.
“These kids are the happiest kids you’ll ever meet in your life, yet they have absolutely nothing,” Sclarandis said as she told of the day the group brought in a piñata. “They were just so excited. It was as if it was the greatest thing they had ever experienced.”
On the return trip home, Sclarandis spent time reflecting on her own life and the differences she encountered in the Dominican Republic.
“As Americans, we are spoiled and you don’t realize it until you spend time in a developing country like the Dominican Republic,” Sclarandis said. “As you walk around, you’re learning about the culture and it helps you reflect on your own life and who you are.”
Sclarandis knew she needed to do more for these children. She thought about her grandparents, who passed away the year before.
“My parents and I have been searching for a way to honor my grandparents — a way to give something that people could count on for a lifetime,” Sclarandis said. “I called my mom as soon as we got to the airport and told her that I found what we needed to spend this money on.”
That call set things in motion.
Sclarandis’ family immediately donated an initial $5,000 — with a matching gift from her father’s employer – for Acevedo to purchase school supplies for the coming year.
Within eight months, the family worked with VCU to establish an endowment. The interest will go toward supplies to complete the construction of a school house for the refugees; and eventually, Sclarandis said, they hope enough interest will accrue to establish scholarships for other VCU students to have the opportunity she had.
“It was a life-changing experience,” Sclarandis said. “We get so caught up in our lives here and the day to day. Now, I stop and think about what I have seen. It keeps my head on my shoulders and reminds me not to get worked up over the small things.”