National/International Opportunities
National/International Opportunities
National Service Opportunities
Landmark Volunteers
Landmark Volunteers provides an opportunity for motivated high school students to earn community service credit while working as a team for two weeks serving 63 nonprofit cultural, environmental, historic and social service organizations across the United States. Supervised by mature and experienced leaders teens have an opportunity to meet new friends and learn new skills while helping organizations with projects that may include painting, trail building, trail maintenance, carpentry, or assisting with disabled campers.
The Student Conservation Association
SCA provides high school and adult volunteers the opportunity to work on significant conservation projects throughout the nation. These volunteers bring their energy and talents to natural resource management agencies such as the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Volunteers In Parks
The National Park Service Volunteers-In-Parks Program (VIP) was authorized by Public Law 91-357 enacted 1970. The primary purpose of the VIP program is to provide a vehicle through which the National Park Service can accept and utilize voluntary help and services from the public. The major objective of the program is to utilize this voluntary help in such a way that is mutually beneficial to the National Park Service and the volunteer. Volunteers are accepted from the public without regard to race, creed, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, or disability.
National & International Service Opportunities
Breakthroughs Abroad
Breakthroughs Abroad offers high school students international volunteer and travel opportunities in developing communities and the U.S. Students live with local families while they work as a team with students from across the United States to help the community complete projects critical to the community's development. This cultural immersion transforms students from tourists to members of the community. Students achieve breakthroughs in their understanding of other cultures, of who they are, and what they can accomplish. The communities we serve experience an increased quality of life. Cultural understanding is enhanced by travel to different parts of the country. Projects include teaching English, upgrading schools, improving sanitation facilities, or other projects identified by the community. We customize programs for individual schools or colleges. Limited scholarships are available., based on need.
Global Routes:
Deepening the Routes of Our Global Community
As peoples of the world become increasingly interdependent we must all
recognize that we live in a global community. The future of this community
depends upon our self-knowledge as well as upon mutual understanding
and respect among diverse cultures. Global Routes deepens these roots
of our shared community as we foster personal and international development.
By giving North American youth and their hosts the opportunity to push
past stereotypes and misconceptions to build strong relationships, self-understanding,
as well as buildings, we help our global community to flourish.
Global Works, Inc
Since 1990, Global Works has been providing exceptional Community Service, Cultural Exchange, Adventure Travel, and Language Learning Programs for teens and young adults. Much more than a vacation, Global Works international trips are the impetus and ÒbridgeÓ for meaningful cultural exchange.
The Road Less Traveled
The Road Less Traveled is an American Camping Association accredited
program offering wilderness expeditions, community service and language
study programs for experienced and novice outdoor travelers age 13-19.
We provide young people with a life experience that sparks their physical
and intellectual growth through the development of wilderness skills
and cultural awareness. Our Wilderness Expeditions explore the world’s
most spectacular pristine wilderness areas on the planet and offer a
wide spectrum of adventure activities, including rafting, kayaking,
rock climbing, backpacking and ice and snow mountaineering. Our Community Service Programs
foster community and global awareness, cultural sensitivity and immersion,
along with an opportunity to make a difference through hands-on service
projects.
Visions:
Service Adventures
Visions is a coed residential program for ages 14-18, blending service
work, cross-cultural learning and outdoor exploration. Recreation and
intercultural activities are planned into program days. Each program
offers a main construction project as well as other service options
such as work with young children, environmental, wilderness or agricultural
projects, mural design and painting, and more.
Wilderness Ventures
Established in 1973, Wilderness Ventures has grown to become the most
widely recognized and experienced multi-environmental wilderness program
for young adults. For over 30 years, Wilderness Ventures has been offering
fun, challenging and confidence-building expeditions for young adults
ages 13 through 20. Previous wilderness experience is not required.
Expeditions visit a variety of wilderness environments in the Western
United States, Hawaii, Alaska, Canada, Europe, Australia, Central America,
and South America for extended periods. Students learn outdoor and group
leadership skills as well as gain an appreciation for wilderness environments.
Activities include community service, whitewater rafting, canoeing,
and sea kayaking. Participants come from nearly every state and several
countries. Enrollment is limited, and applicants must submit school
references prior to admission.
World Horizons
International: Summer Programs with a Purpose
If you are a high school student interested in making a serious contribution
to a community in need of volunteer support, think about joining World
Horizons International this summer. You'll be working hand in hand with
local people in a cultural framework that may be very different from
your own. If you are willing to learn and up to the challenge of a true
cross-cultural experience, you will be richly rewarded. There is no
"typical" World Horizons volunteer. Participants come from
a variety of geographic locations throughout the world. They represent
different ethnic, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds. What they
share is a sense of adventure, a willingness to compromise when necessary
and the desire to help others.
World
PULSE
World PULSE engages San Francisco Bay Area
young people (ages 18-25) from low-income
communities and ethnic minority groups in local and
international voluntary community service work,
cross-cultural exchange and other activities and
trainings to help them become community leaders and
"global citizens." World PULSE's evening and
weekend activities include service projects,
exercises and workshops on cross-cultural
understanding and issues of racism and leadership
skills. During the summer, they travel abroad by
themselves for 2-3 weeks to volunteer in an
international service project with young people
from around the world.
International Service Opportunities
Amigos de las Americas
For more than four decades, Amigos de las AmŽricas (AMIGOS) has facilitated transformational community service involving more than 20,000 youth Volunteers and thousands of communities in Latin America. Through our programs, high school and college-aged Volunteers jump in with head, heart, and hands to contribute to health, education, and environmental service projects. AMIGOS projects are a collaborative effort between our participants, a vigorous network of Pan-American partner agencies, and the local knowledge and experience of our host communities.
The Council on International Educational
Exchange
Since 1947, the Council on International Education Exchange (CIEE) has
been helping young people gain an understanding of the world by providing
opportunities to work, live and study in other countries. By spending
3-4 weeks of their summer living and working abroad, students will make
an impact on the environment and the people of that country. Projects
vary from working with Habitat for Humanity in Costa Rica to build houses,
to working with rural children in their school in Ecuador, to going
on an archeological dig in Peru, to being counselors at a summer camp
in Guadeloupe. In each country, at the end of the service project, students
will also enjoy the ecology and recreation of the country by visiting
important National Parks, seeing the animals and vegetation of each
place, and meeting and living with native people. There are adventures
such as a whale watching cruise in Ecuador , surfing on a reed boat
and hiking Machu Picchu in Peru, whitewater rafting and zipping through
the tree canopy in Costa Rica and kayaking, snorkeling or diving in
Guadeloupe.
Cross-Cultural Solutions
Cross-Cultural Solutions is a non-profit organization that enables volunteers
to make a meaningful contribution to the community by working side-by-side
with local people, while gaining a new perspective and insight into
the culture and themselves. The volunteer work is with carefully selected
Partner Programs, all of which are dynamic and inspiring community-led
initiatives. These include orphanages and childcare centers, schools,
health clinics and hospitals, homes for the elderly, centers for people
with disabilities, and other community organizations. Volunteers enjoy
the flexibility of choosing from 10 countries, start dates year-round
and programs from 1-12 weeks long. CCS offers international volunteer
programs in Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Peru,
Russia, Tanzania, and Thailand.
Cross-Cultural Solutions is a recognized leader in the field of international
volunteering. Founded in 1995, we are an international not-for-profit
organization with no political or religious affiliations. CCS has a
worldwide staff of over 200 people, and operates in 10 countries, with
administrative offices also located in the United States and United
Kingdom. We are in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations,
and have been profiled in more than 500 news outlets.
Experiment
in International Living
Are you interested in learning about other cultures firsthand? We offer
young people the opportunity to live with families in countries all
over the world.
Global
Service Corps (GSC)
GSC provides international volunteer service learning opportunities in such countries as Costa Rica, Thailand, and Kenya. Projects have themes of environmental awareness, community development, education, & conservation.
Global
Volunteers, Partners in Development: "Adventures In
Service."
Assist people of diverse cultures on human and
economic development projects worldwide. Gain a
"non-tourist perspective" of life in Africa, Asia,
the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, the Pacific,
and the United States. Global Volunteers, a private
non-profit, non-sectarian development organization,
was founded in 1984 with the goal of helping to
establish a foundation for peace through mutual
international understanding. At the request of
local leaders and indigenous host organizations,
Global Volunteers sends teams of volunteers to live
and work with local people on human and economic
development projects identified by the community as
important to its long-term development. In this
way, the volunteers' energy, creativity and labor
are put to use at the same time that they gain a
genuine, firsthand understanding of how other
people live day-to-day.
Greek Summer
This is a six-week community service and travel odyssey for high school students that have completed grades 10, 11, or 12. Students spend four weeks living with a family in a small Greek village where they complete a community service project. The project usually involves the construction of a road, park, or town square for the village in which the students live. Participants work with a foreman and their Greek Summer staff, who instruct them in tasks such as cement making and brick laying. At the end of the four week village project students take a ten-day tour through the historical sites of Greece. Having lived in a Greek village, participants experience these sites not as tourists, but with a deeper understanding of Greece and its history.
International Seminar Series: Summer in Paris
A program of cultural immersion through study and community service. "The Seminar is not just about what you can do, but what can happen to you - externally and internally. In a world of scarce resources, you are a valuable resource. When you volunteer to serve the community, the mutual benefits cannot be over-emphasized. You are surrounded by people who give of themselves. You come to know what you mean to those you help."
Rustic Pathways
Some students join community service projects for one week at the conclusion of another Rustic Pathways program, while other students join us for several weeks - or even the whole summer. Rustic Pathways awards community service hours according to the time that students work on a given project. Community Service is fun and rewarding, and Thailand and The Fiji Islands are both very friendly and exciting for Community Service. Our programs mix community service with touring, sports, feasts, festivals and cultural exchanges. Because of their popularity, please apply for community service programs and add-ons as early as possible.
Viviendas León
ViviendasLeón is an international sustainable development organization.
Every summer we organize trips for volunteers from the United States
to build schools or housing in rural communities around León,
Nicaragua. Participants will learn about sustainable development while
living and working alongside the people of these communities. Construction
of schools supports the education of children, one of the principle
cornerstones of development. Housing construction stabilizes families
so that they can better contribute to the development of their community.
Participants will live with a host family, learn about sustainable development and assist in construction. There are also daily trips to environmental sites, relaxation on nearby beaches, and visits to sites of historic and cultural importance. The delegations will be lead by our Program Director from the United States with support from our staff in León.
Volunteers for Peace
VFP is a Vermont non-profit (501 (c) (3) membership corporation which
has been coordinating International Workcamps since 1982. In 2000, we
exchanged over 1200 volunteers. Our services include providing consultation
and a placement service for workcamp hosts and volunteers, linking people
with programs. Our programs foster international education, voluntary
service and friendship. In the last 19 years we have exchanged over
20,000 volunteers in international workcamps world-wide. In the 1980's,
we focused heavily on exchanges across the "Iron Curtain",
playing a significant role in that era of citizen diplomacy.
Where There Be Dragons: Learning Adventures in Asia
They offer students, school groups and adults remarkable learning opportunities
through off-the-beaten path, intimate, small group expeditions to CAMBODIA,
CHINA, GUATEMALA, INDIA, LAOS, MEXICO, MONGOLIA, PERU, THAILAND, TIBET,
and VIETNAM. Trips are rugged, creative, and engaging journeys that combine
wilderness exploration, trekking to remote villages, introduction to traditional
philosophy and artistic traditions, home-stays, service projects, language
training, and cultural studies. Six week summer programs as well as spring
and fall semester programs.
