Working with developmentally disabled Spanish youth taught students on Tufts’ inaugural service-learning program about commitment, perseverance—and themselves
A young woman and a girl moved along a street in a quiet neighborhood of Madrid. They held hands and talked fast in Spanish. The girl, perhaps eight years old, looked up at her companion as she told her story of the day’s big event, a school birthday party with lots of kids and colorful balloons.
Periodically, the girl got so excited that she almost stepped off the sidewalk into the street, as she pivoted and waved her hands around to dramatize the moment she was recounting.
The young woman was Madeline Weir, an American from Buffalo, New York, who was one of four students who spent last year in Spain as part of the inaugural Tufts 1 + 4 Bridge-Year Service Learning Program.
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Already accepted to the undergraduate Class of 2020 at Tufts, and an accomplished athlete who was recruited to the women’s crew team, Weir spent nine months volunteering her time and energy in Spain and, with any luck, discovering something valuable about herself in the process of helping others.
Counterclockwise from top, Madeline Weir, A20, walks Josefina through the rain having traversed the city by train and foot to a series of appointments across town and then back to Montoya House; Josefina asks if Weir will carry her for part of the rainy commute; Josefina jokes as Weir tries to get her to focus on completing homework back at Montoya House. Photos: Alonso NicholsMontoya is one of five houses in Madrid, all run under the auspices of the Alicia Koplowitz Foundation, where the 1 + 4 students worked. The schedules for Madeline and the other bridge year fellows—Daniela Sánchez from Albuquerque, New Mexico; Gongga Baerde from Somerville, Massachusetts; and Justin Mejía from Fairfield, Connecticut—varied depending on their individual assignments, but each of them logged between 20 and 30 hours a week at their respective volunteer sites. The four lived together in an apartment for their nine-month bridge year experience.
They generally worked at the homes from mid-afternoon through late evening. They would escort the children from school to one of the homes, assist with tutoring, take their charges out to local parks for exercise, help prepare dinner, and then get the kids ready for bed. Sometimes the students worked solo; other times they overlapped.
