Talk with Felice Prindle, 2026’s Traveling Teacher of the Year, and you’ll see her get easily choked up about the life-changing experience she’s had as the leader of Titan Service Scholars, a service learning program that has taken her and groups of dedicated students to Cuba, the Bateyes of the Dominican Republic, and beyond.
The story of how she got here starts decades earlier, however. Before Felice Prindle became a counselor at Webster Thomas High School in New York, she earned her undergraduate degree in hospitality. She worked in the industry for several years, on both the hotel and the restaurant sides, in the U.S. and in Italy. Being a world traveler since she was just three years old put her on this career path, but it was a deep desire for relationship building that led her to change direction and pursue a Masters in School Counseling.
One of Felice’s first counseling jobs was at a school in a small, rural town in Bloomfield, New York. There, she developed a connection with a group of ambitious students who were seeking a more meaningful educational travel experience than what schools typically offer. They wanted to go to a place where they could use the Spanish language they were studying, so the focus was on the Caribbean, Latin America, and South America. And, they were interested in more than simply visiting a school or meeting a family for a day; they wanted to make a difference.
After numerous phone calls, Felice finally found an operator who understood the assignment. And, they just happened to have a new program they were launching that would take students to Cuba. “We would get to stay in an eco-lodge, and it just sounded fantastic, very real, very immersive,” she says. “So, I pitched it to my students, and, of course, the idea of being pioneers; the first people to go to Cuba in over 50 years was really exciting.”
They then had the challenge of selling the idea to the very conservative Board of Education, but it went over better than expected and was approved! That was in 2016, and that was how the global impact side of the school’s service learning program started.
Today, at Webster Thomas, a larger school that’s closer to her home, Felice has been running the Titan Service Scholars program for the past five years. It’s available for all of the school’s 1,200 students, as well as alumni. In about 10 years’ time, between her previous and current school, Felice has taken 300-plus students on global impact projects to Cuba, Peru, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.
It’s the work they’ve done in the Bateyes region of the Dominican Republic that feels most significant. These sugarcane cutting communities, which are mostly composed of marginalized Haitian migrant workers, are largely without basic necessities; the types of daily essentials that many people take for granted.
So, much of what they do is related to infrastructure: laying cement floors, building latrines, and performing other types of physical labor to help provide better conditions and create lasting change. Most recently, after the loss of USAID funding, her alumni groups have also been co-facilitating mobile clinics that allocate medicine and supplies.
“To have my students be able to engage in real service, not charity, and foster these really lasting relationships and partnerships throughout our community—and then be able to do that globally—is far more rewarding than anything that can happen in a classroom,” Felice says.
Since 2021, she’s been returning every six months to the Dominican Republic Batey settlements of La Mora, La Plaza, and Monte Coca, either with current students over winter break or alumni groups in summer. Felice notes that these are unfunded volunteer projects with no budget. No one, including herself, gets paid and lodging is never in a hotel, but typically in dormitory centers affiliated with churches.
Alumni projects involve a homestay, where they reside with families, take bucket showers, cook food together, and celebrate together. They become truly connected and share a lived experience with the people they are engaged with.
This type of immersion is not without risks, so they do plenty of preparation, collaborating with organizations such as Passport Health, getting all the needed vaccines, and learning about water and food safety. They also spend a lot of time studying up on the critical issues that are impacting the communities that they’re going to. “We read newspaper articles and watch documentaries,” Felice says. “And, obviously, we also talk directly with the Batey residents and families, so students enter projects ready to give all of their heart and all of their soul.”
Felice also credits Offbeat Travel as an invaluable partner. Their offerings are designed and led by people who call the places they serve home, and part of their mission is to “Create equity in the travel industry by ensuring the people in the places we visit have ownership of the design, implementation, management and economic benefits of travel to their communities.”
While it’s clear that the projects they take on greatly benefit those living in these impoverished areas, what is not to be overlooked is how it shapes the students, alumni, and faculty involved. Webster Thomas High School’s service program is the second largest program available to students after sports, and it attracts all kinds of students from different social groups.
“Service is a great equalizer,” Felice says. “You don’t have to be smart; you don’t have to be athletic; you just have to be willing to pick up a shovel and hand mix cement. You can have the most popular kid, you can have the music kid, you can have the football player, you can have the valedictorian… and they all bring different strengths to a project.”
To help articulate how much of an effect these projects have, Felice asked some of the participants from over the years to weigh in.
One of the school’s varsity baseball players, now an alum, said: “It changed the trajectory of my life, and I knew that I wanted to do more in the world. It ended up changing my major in college. I thought I was going to do sports management, and now I’m an elementary teacher. It took my learning past the classroom and impacted how I grew, and it also impacts how I see the world and how I act in it every single day.”
Another former student who was an academic high performer said: “It opened up new experiences and new connections. I was socially anxious before, but now, as a result of service, I can open up. I have confidence. I can think better on my feet, and I can react in a way that’s ethical and just, and I want more for others.”
Felice sees many graduates who have been in the program go into fields such as nonprofit management, nursing, teaching, and other “helping” professions. While much of the inspiration comes from the actual projects and interactions, there’s also Felice at the helm, making sure her students understand the bigger picture.
“I teach my students that our ability to travel really depends on global systems of inequality, and colonialism runs deep in the travel industry,” she says. “I always tell them: We are focusing on respect over consumption, we are focusing on relationships over Instagram content. We are meeting people and connecting with other hearts that now will replace the dots on the map. Behind a headline that we read in the newspaper, there are people.”
Each project they undertake allows students and alumni the opportunity to grow intercultural competence, increase comprehension of shared humanity, and gain profound knowledge about themselves and the world. “I’m proud to do it,” Felice says. “I’ve found my purpose.”
Written by Allison Kay Bannister.
Photos courtesy of Felice Prindle.
