In the summer of 2023, Emma spent over two months working alongside the staff and volunteers at Domingo Savio. During these months, Emma was able to access new experiences such as leading English and dance talleres (workshops), engaging with other cultures, and discovering a passion for childhood development and education that will guide her studies and work in the future. Above all, Emma expresses that her time at Domingo Savio enabled her to make connections with the organization and local community that she will cherish forever.
In 2023, Kieran traveled from Belgium to Santiago, Chile to spend four months volunteering at Domingo Savio. Kieran focused all his efforts on having an impact on the lives of the niños—whether that be through leading workshops, playing games, or exchanging laughter and conversation. Through his time at Domingo Savio, Kieran was not only able to improve his Spanish proficiency, but he was able to see the tangible effects he was leaving on the lives of those he worked with. However, upon leaving, Kieran found that they too changed his life for the better.
In 1981, Steve Reifenberg had recently graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a philosophy degree. For the year following his graduation, he had been a high school teacher with the idea that he would go to law school in the future. While pondering over the next steps of his life, Steve reconnected with a friend from Notre Dame who had finished two years of volunteering on a Notre Dame program in Santiago, Chile at St. George’s College, a Holy Cross school. He connected Steve with Olga Diaz, who a few years earlier had begun a small, privately run orphanage or “hogar” called “Domingo Savio.”