Alumni “Pay it Forward” Through Program Scholarships

It’s not uncommon for volunteers’ life-altering service program experiences to lead to changes in school choices, career aspirations – or even the choice of spouse!  Some of our alumni have taken the next step and established scholarships enabling other volunteers to follow in their footsteps by serving in the same partner communities.

Many donors operate anonymously, but others leverage their advocacy to gain broad interest.  For instance:

• After learning that the level of care for the disabled and abandoned children her daughter served waned to nearly nothing in the winter months, a mother snapped into action to create the Global Volunteers Romania Winter Scholarship Fund.  To encourage volunteers to serve in Barlad, Romania in the cold months, the fund provides partial scholarships ($1, 000) to ten recipients annually.  In this way, she’s “paid it forward” to ensure that babies are cared for and new volunteers are engaged.
• A University of Central Missouri Alumna served with Global Volunteers on a USA program and provided an endowment to her Alma Mater for student service scholarships.  In the past six years,  more than 60 students have served with Global Volunteers in Ecuador, India, Costa Rica, Poland, St. Lucia and Cuba with more communities to be served in future years!

Not everyone can contribute this way, but these alumni say the satisfaction of knowing that their influence, through the lives of the student recipients and those they serve, has greatly deepened their own fulfillment.

Would you like to investigate a scholarship program with Global Volunteers? Please call us at 651-407-6100 to discuss your idea!