Page 10 - MGATODAY-Fall2017_lr

By Sheron Smith

For a pioneering group of Middle Georgia State
University students, time abroad was time to serve.

A Meaningful Journey

Victoria Klingler, second from right, and some of her fellow MGA students at the reforestation activity in the Dominican Republic. SHERON SMITH

O n a humid day in late May, Victoria sets the tree seedling in the ground and uses both
Klingler is navigating some hilly country- hands to brush dirt into the hole. Klingler will
side on foot in the Dominican Republic, repeat the process half a dozen times or more over
making her way to a flatbed truck to fetch a the next two hours.
mahogany seedling and carry it to a small, freshly “I know hard work. This is hard, but it’s fun.
dug hole in the grassy slope. We’re getting to see the real Dominican Republic.”
Klingler is 19, a native of Byron. It’s the Klingler, a sophomore who plans to become
Middle Georgia State University biology major’s a large-animal veterinarian, was one of about 25
first time traveling outside the U.S. MGA students who visited the Dominican as part
But here, near the tiny village of Barrabas in of the University’s first “Knights Impact”
this lush Caribbean nation, she feels surprisingly experience, a service-learning trip to what the
at home. Lonely Planet travel guide describes as the
“I grew up on a cattle farm, going to livestock Caribbean’s most geographically diverse country,
shows,” she said, her face slightly sweaty as she “with stunning mountain scenery, desert

10 MIDDLE GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY