We belted out, “I was like, ‘Baby, baby, baby, oh!’” while weaving wooden beads into our rainbow friendship bracelets. We sang for hours and only stopped to take Pinoy hip-hop dance breaks. My heart experienced an unexpected fullness. When I signed up for the first Nueva Community Service Learning (CSL) trip to the Philippines, I never imagined I would end up in a small coastal town singing pop songs while crafting with local boys—which would end up teaching me a lesson on joy and resilience. Yet, that’s exactly what happened in July this past summer.
This CSL trip, organized by English teacher Pearl Bauer and Director of Environmental
Citizenship Sarah Koning and co-chaperoned by Dean of Students Jackee Bruno, has had a profound impact on me. Over the course of two weeks, we traveled to four cities in the Philippines, where we experienced traditional and modern Filipino culture, learned about the history and lasting impacts of colonialism, engaged in environmental service projects, and savored rich cuisine. We learned about a conservation project to restore thriving biodiversity and ecosystem resilience to a forest an hour from bustling Manila. We visited a local Indigenous community where we learned about the significant challenges the students face in traveling to school—on top of the bullying they encounter by non-Indigenous peers. And, for one week, we lived and attended “camp” at the Stairway Foundation .
Stairway Foundation is a nonprofit organization based in the Philippines working to promote children’s rights through a variety of programs. It partners with the surrounding Puerto Galera community to promote youth education for local students. For example, we learned about the Environmental Awareness for Children and Youth (EACY) program, which empowers local students with knowledge about environmental and marine science through a variety of activities.
Stairway’s cornerstone program is Family Home, in which Stairway provides housing, education,and therapy for up to 14 adolescent boys,“street children” who live on the streets of Manila and are at risk of using drugs, joining gangs, and being trafficked.
I emerged with a newfound sense of responsibility for human and children’s rights. I also rediscovered the radical power of gratitude, joy, and resilience and their role in improving any situation. -Kayla L.
These boys have faced significant adversity in their lives. It was clear, they understood a million things that we did not—and that we never would. Despite a world of differences between us, we played, laughed, danced, and connected with an impossible beauty and authenticity.
On our first day at Stairway, each member of our Nueva group partnered with one of the Stairway boys. Alex A. ’28 and I paired up with Noah, a 12-year-old boy with an ear-to-ear smile. He laughed and cracked jokes at every meal, every activity, and every time of day. Every breakfast, he would ask me,“How did you sleep, big sister Kayla?” My younger sisters rarely bother asking that! Noah is one of those rare and special people with a joy that infects the hearts of others around him—a superpower that he and all the other boys wield at Stairway.
Their superpower is even more exceptional because 90 percent of the Family Home participants are victims of sexual abuse. Yet they still live every day with gratitude and wonder.
The next day, the onsite Stairway social worker, Ate Donna ( Ate , pronounced ah-tay, is a Tagalog term to refer respectfully to older women) shared with us more about the boys’ backgrounds. She shared how, in the Philippines, sexual abuse and trafficking are exacerbated by homelessness, socioeconomic stratification, social stigma, the Internet, and religious factors. Ate Donna also elaborated on the organization’s mission, highlighting its focus on human and children’s rights, including the rights to safety, guardianship, freedom, joy, and access to food.
Ate Donna then gave us a tour of the Stairway campus, which was a stark contrast to our everyday surroundings at Nueva. While Nueva’s Upper School campus is sprawling, with multiple buildings, a gymnasium, music studios, an I-Lab, and much more, the Stairway campus is composed of one building that houses a classroom, a computer lab, and the boys’ bedrooms.
The art classroom, basketball courts, cafeteria, and central theater stage are all outdoors. While homey and decorated by the boys’ artwork, the bedrooms and classroom are minimal: no high-tech lab equipment, projector and whiteboards, or Macbook Pro laptops. The most high-tech equipment I saw was a single air conditioner, despite the tropical weather.
Ate Donna did not shy away from saying to us, without judgment,“I can see that your group is very privileged.” While our iPhones, Hydroflasks, Patagonia zip-ups, and Air Jordans had not gone unnoticed, she was actually commenting on our intangible privilege: that we all have parents or guardians, food, and a roof over our heads when we sleep at night. And, she noted, we have grown up in a world that has afforded us the freedom to dream big for our futures. Put bluntly: unlike the Stairway boys, we have never had to be on the streets fighting for our lives.
Ate Donna was right; we have so much to be grateful for in our lives. Listening to this brought tears to my eyes and challenged my worldview. See, I have always said my thank yous for birthday gifts, acknowledged my privilege of attending Nueva, and felt grateful to have a loving family, but I have never needed to think deeply about my rights and where I would find things as essential as food, housing, and family. I now view these seemingly “basic” rights and needs with a new lens of appreciation.
Despite the heaviness of their circumstances, the boys carried a lightness about them. The next few days, amidst the ongoing Typhoon Carina, the Nueva and Stairway students came together to swim daily at the beach and make friendship bracelets, dreamcatchers, and tiled mosaics.
Oh, how Noah and the other boys teased me about my snail-like bracelet-braiding pace! These crafts are not merely fun activities for the boys; the boys create bracelets and dreamcatchers that are then sold in order to earn a monthly allowance and cover a portion of their toiletries. This is a way for them to make money and build a number of important occupational skills so they can pursue school or work after their time at Stairway. They learn to cook, bake, clean, craft, swim, and so much more. As residents of a coastal town, they even work toward certification in scuba diving.
What stands out to me about our time at Stairway are the little moments. Noah and Aaron patiently teaching me how to juggle. Aiden and Julian helping me learn to pronounce the nasally “nga” in the Tagalog word “ngayong ,” meaning “today.” (They giggled as I struggled to make the right sound.) Peter teasing me, good-naturedly, while teaching me to fold origami paper cranes… though my attempts didn’t quite match his success.
While I was initially most excited about the environmental focus of this trip, I emerged with a newfound sense of responsibility for human and children’s rights. I also re-discovered the radical power of gratitude, joy, and resilience and their role in improving any situation. We went to Stairway as “volunteers,” but reflecting back, we were more “students” and “friends.”
The boys are proof that people can survive the worst and yet continue to live their best versions of themselves—not necessarily in material ways, but by constantly practicing gratitude, laughing, appreciating small joys, and finding family in a community. I will forever respect and be in awe of them.
Last week, we were able to Zoom with the Stairway boys and check in on how they’re doing (smiling and laughing, like always). I hope that Nueva, as a school, can continue to offer this opportunity to students, so that other Nuevans can experience this newfound gratitude and appreciation as I have.
On the last night before our departure, Noah gifted (Stairway boys never stop giving you as much as they can offer) me a multi-colored friendship bracelet that I have fastened around my Nueva water bottle. I carry this around with me, a small symbol of the loving connections we weaved so quickly between our two schools.
The newly created Nueva Stairway Club is currently hosting a Christmas drive to collect holiday gifts for the boys.
By Kayla Ling, student at the Nueva School