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By
Julia Scott
Creative
Learning
Amizade offers community-based service learning
projects year-round for college-age volunteers. Do travel writing in
Ghana; research HIV/AIDS in Tanzania; discuss what it means to be a
global citizen with your host family in Jamaica. Programs start at $1985,
including airfare, and last about two weeks. Some courses require a
minimum GPA and credits are awarded through the University of Pittsburgh.
www.amizade.org
Avenue
to the Americas
Amigos de Las Amˇricas has spent nearly 40 years
placing volunteers (16 and up) with families in rural communities across
Latin America and the Caribbean as public health and community development
workers. Programs involve anything from teaching children about environmental
health or computer literacy in Honduras or Paraguay, to teaching English
to indigenous communities in Costa Rica. These intense experiences start
with a training program that includes Spanish and Portuguese languages
(participants must already have two years of high school language training).
Training takes place at one of the Amigos chapters in 17 states; it
is also available by correspondence. Chapters help with individual fundraising.
School credit is offered and round-trip airfare is included in the flat
fee of $3,625. www.amigoslink.org
Nature's
Classroom
If you're passionate about environmental studies
and like a hands-on approach, take a look at Audubon Expedition Institute's
graduate, undergraduate and advances placement high school programs
through Lesley University. It may look like a regular school on paper,
with teaching seminars, projects and faculty, but students study and
sleep outside. Their teachers are the natural environment, grassroots
activists, and each other. Collage and graduate students may earn a
degree in Environmental Studies or Environmental Teaching and Learning,
respectively. Many students go for year between high school and a traditional
college program, earning college credit along the way. Past programs
have explored regions in Hawaii and the desert Southwest. Financial
aid is available. www.getonthebus.org
Think
Globally
Cross-Cultural Solutions likes to be labeled as
a "mini-stint with the peace corps," which can definitely seem intimidating
to someone who's only looking for a short volunteer/cultural exchange
adventure. But the key word here is "mini." Programs are flexible, lasting
from two to twelve weeks, year-round. Volunteers' time is split into
three parts: working in partnership with community organizations, according
to your preference and skills; "Perspectives Programming," through which
you can explore local culture and take language classes; and regional
tourism on your own time. Living situations seem pretty comfortable,
with volunteers often sharing a house or an apartment building staffed
by cooks who prepare regional dishes. Program placements are decided
according to your skills and interests.
So if you're into learning about and helping with local medical practices,
working in China, Brazil, Russia or Tanzania might suit you. If you'd
rather teach English or play with children at daycare, Guatemala, Peru,
Thailand or India could be more to your taste. For instance, Russian
program volunteers might work in a homeless shelter for little kids
or care for the elderly at a local nursing home. You could expect Russian
language classes, local excursions, and maybe even a trip to Moscow
or St. Petersburg.
Any three-week trip costs $2,423. Parental supervision is required for
people under 17 years old, which means that if you're in middle school,
you can go too. www.crossculturalsolutions.org
World
Beat
Global Routes is a well-established international
volunteer program for high school and college students looking to do
good work in a developing country—and have a lot of fun while doing
it, too. A trip to Ecuador, for example, starts with a group orientation
hike through the wilderness and ends with sightseeing in tropical forests
and whitewater rafting. The middle of the trip consists of a home stay
with local families and some community/construction work. Other fascinating
locales: St. Lucia, Costa Rica, Thailand and Kenya—and one in San
Francisco. There are language requirements for some programs, and you'll
be encouraged to converse with your foster family, cook, and be a part
of their daily life. College programs are in the same countries, but
students split up to live in remote villages with host families. Programs
typically last five to six weeks and prices are pretty steep, starting
at $3,750 for international strips. Financial aid is available, too—check
out the "Diversity Fund" link. www.globalroutes.org/student-exchange-programs
Home
Sweet Home
Habitat for Humanity is America's best-known,
faith-based house-building volunteer program for low-income families.
(You don't have to be of a particular faith to participate, or have
prior knowledge of construction techniques). It's active in over 80
countries now, and attracts people of all backgrounds who are looking
for a shorter-term alternative to Americorps or the like. The Global
Village Program looks especially neat, placing volunteers with host
communities for 2-3 weeks, with time to spare for tourism and getting
to know the community. (Age requirements are 18 and over for international
trips, 16+ for U.S. and Canada; younger students can go with a parent).
The last time we checked, Habitat was offering some amazing programs
in Poland, Thailand and Ghana. Housing in hotels in those countries
seems downright luxurious, given the rural surroundings. Trips start
at $1,200, excluding airfare. There are so many choices that it's easy
to shop around: check out the Local Search feature to find out about
Habitat projects near you. www.habitat.org
A
Little Respect
There's a reason Windsor Mountain's (formerly
known as Interlokken) student travel programs are wildly popular among
high school students: they treat kids (in elementary and middle school)
like adults. Each month-long session is totally unique; many have a
focus on inter-cultural exploration, service work, or educational fun.
There's a trip to Cuba where students live with rural families, learn
to salsa, and make documentaries; a two-week horseback odyssey on a
ranch in New Hampshire; a chance to create and perform in a traveling
minstrel show in Spain, Portugal, Italy and France; a bike tour through
Europe; and a nomadic band of do-gooders you can join to perform "random
acts of kindness" across New England. Group sizes are an average of
13. Tuition spikes at $4,995 for the Cuba program; others, like the
"California Adventure," are around $3,600. www.windsormountain.org
Far
Sighted
Visions Adventures is pretty serious about the
projects they ask volunteers to take on—from log milling in Alaska
to working on an Australian organic farm, to planning a day camp for
kids on the island of Dominica. Volunteers sleep in cabins, churches
or schools. But you get to play pretty hard too, with half your time
off—you can go fishing in Trinidad, snorkel off the coast of the
British Virgin Islands, speak French with locals in Guadeloupe, hike
up Machu Picchu in Peru and take incredible pictures for everyone back
home.
Programs are designed for 14 to18 year-olds, last around four weeks,
start at $3,500. www.visions-adventure.org
Good
to Go in Ghana
The Voluntary Workcamps Association of Ghana (VOLU)'s
website isn't that flashy, but its 3-week programs provide vital help
to local Ghanaian communities in implementing AIDS awareness campaigns
and literacy projects, in constructing hospitals, cocoa plantations
and roads. "Workcampers" (aged 16 and up) can choose which tasks they'd
like to take on at 15 different regional spots. Living is basic. Programs
last three to four weeks, although some people stay longer and others
leave sooner. The work day ends at 1:00 pm so you can explore the area,
or take part in drumming and singing. The best part: every project is
composed half of international volunteers and half of Ghanaians. Cost:
only $200 (does not include airfare). www.volu.org
Wild Things
If you love animals and you love spending time with
them, Youth Corps for Animals is for you. It's a searchable database of
volunteer operations with local groups in most states across the country.
So if you're not up for traveling all the way to Utah to give some TLC
to abandoned cats and dogs, chances are there's already a bunch of them
who need you just as much right in your home state. There are also programs
listed in India, South Korea, the Netherlands, Africa, and Canada. Pick
your travel destination and look up the local organizations.
Costs and time requirements vary widely. www.youthforanimals.org
More Links, More Action
Looking for more educational adventures? Check these
sites out too:
www.idealist.org/kt/volorgs.html
A great collection of volunteer programs and orgs for young people.
www.volunteermatch.org
Search by zip code to find dozens of volunteer and job opportunities in
your area.
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