By Bonnie Adams, Managing Editor
Northborough – As a young girl growing up in Northborough, Catherine Dorian always looked forward to when her family would go on their annual summer trip to their lake house in upstate New York. But in 2010, when she was 16, she wanted to do something a little bit different for part of her summer vacation. Perusing online, she came across a program, VISIONS Service Adventure.
According to its website, VISIONS is a “youth summer program of ambitious community service rooted in cross-cultural communities, and with doses of adventure.”
Dorian thought the program looked interesting and decided to apply for a spot on the three-week session that would take place in Great Falls, Mont., where the group would work with Plains Indians on the Blackfeet Reservation. Dorian enjoyed her experience so much in that state that she decided to attend college at Montana State University (MSU). She is currently a junior studying English and minoring in Native American studies, with goal becoming a teacher after graduation.
When she first arrived in Montana during the summer of 2010, it was a “culture shock” at first, she admitted.
“There were about 25 of us, a mix of boys and girls, mostly city kids,” she said. “And we were staying in a big concrete barrack. But then of course, we didn’t stay there that much – only to sleep.”

Dorian attended this Pow Wow in Browning, Mont. as part of her experience with VISIONS. (Photos/submitted)
During the session, participants go onto the reservation to help with carpentry needs at homes and other buildings. They also work with the elderly and children. The teens are also expected to help with basic housekeeping chores at the barrack such as cleaning, cooking and shopping.
The program, which was started in 1988, is loosely based on the Peace Corps model and emphasizes “collaborative service work and cross-cultural living.”
But as Dorian explained, VISIONS is unlike many other volunteer opportunities.
“The concept is not that you are here to save these ‘poor people’ or even that they need your help. It is more that you are there to learn from them, learn about their culture and traditions,” Dorian said.
“We want to avoid looking like a mission and instead concentrate on establishing relationships within the community,” she added. “We really want to balance our work with the learning aspect.”
In the summer of 2014, Dorian was hired to be a junior staffer for VISIONS, which had recently moved its home office to Bozeman, Mont. She was assigned to work on its Northern Cheyenne program, where she was the “food honcho,” ensuring that menus were created for the participants and enough food was always on site. It was not always easy, she added, since the nearest Costco, where much of the food was purchased, was in the city of Billings, two hours away.
“I learned a lot about planning and not wasting things!” she laughed.
Now as a junior at MSU, Dorian is naturally looking toward life after graduation. She hopes to become certified to teach English in grades 9 and 10 in her adopted state.
Because she is so far away from her hometown of Northborough, she only comes home on occasion.
“The culture is really different out here, compared to home,” she said. “It took a little bit of time to get used to it. But now I have a great group of friends and I am really happy here.”
“That decision to participate in the VISIONS program really changed who I was – I am become more mature, focused and self-sufficient,” she added. “It was a great experience in so many ways.”
VISIONS has a number of programs in the US as well as Spanish immersion programs in the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Galápagos, Nicaragua and Peru, and a French immersion program in Guadeloupe. For more information, visit www.visionsserviceadventures.com.