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Michele Gran

About Michele Gran

Michele is Global Volunteers' co-founder and vice president. She manages the organization‘s marketing strategy and external messages, and serves on the Board of Directors. Michele earned a Master’s Degree in Liberal Studies/International Communications at Hamline University, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism at the University of Minnesota. She has led over 60 Global Volunteers service programs in 21 countries.

Entries by Michele Gran

Development Impact Montana

Insight and Compassion Fuels Blackfeet Food Security Program

The Blackfeet Food Access and Sustainability Team (FAST Blackfeet) helps people living in poverty on the Blackfeet Reservation confront food insecurity head on. By providing recipes, nutrition classes and weekly access to meal staples and traditional foods – such as medicinal teas and local bison – at the Ō´yō´•ṗ´ Food Pantry, Global Volunteers’ partner is […]

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April 21, 2023/by Michele Gran
Conversational English Cuba

“Reluctant Teacher” Says Cuban Teens Inspired Her Confidence

When first-time Global Volunteer and Ameriprise Financial Director, Cindy Hanson, prepared for her Cuba Service Program in 2022, she “overlooked” the expectation she’d be teaching basic English skills for part of every day. Once onsite, she learned that sharing conversational skills with eager teens need not be daunting. “Just discuss what you know,” she was […]

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March 10, 2023/by Michele Gran
Development Impact, Reaching Children's Potential

Care for Women and Heal the World

Women of the world are an overlooked, dismissed resource for unimaginable change. Over generations, societies which tolerate or promote gender bias and deny girls and women full participation in development squander and repress the contributions of half of the world’s population. With our focus on human and economic development, Global Volunteers is committed to working […]

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March 8, 2023/by Michele Gran
Development Impact, Reaching Children's Potential

Girls’ Contribution to the World – Nurturers, Laborers, Leaders, Our Future

Girls study, perform domestic chores, work on farms and in stores, carry on traditions, care for elders and siblings, and prepare themselves to take on the responsibilities of adulthood. They’re a fundamental source of transformational change for gender equality, and half of the future resource to the global society and economy.  The world over, as […]

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February 20, 2023/by Michele Gran
Reaching Children's Potential Tanzania

Village Families Promote New Dimensions of Mental Wellness in Tanzania

Since 2018, Global Volunteers staff and volunteers have assisted local people in the five villages of the Ukwega Ward of Tanzania in visualizing a model of optimal, community-wide mental wellness to integrate into the primary care system. Beginning in January 2023, a mental wellness assessment will help identify the primary conditions that block that vision. […]

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January 12, 2023/by Michele Gran
Development Impact

39 Years of Volunteer Service Worldwide!

It started in Minnesota, by four people who had a simple idea, about waging peace . . .  In the past 39 years, Global Volunteers has mobilized over 38,000 volunteers to serve children and families in partner communities in 36 countries on six continents. We know that direct, hands-on service cultivates mutual understanding and respect, and helps […]

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January 4, 2023/by Michele Gran
Why I Give Tanzania

Why I Give: Helping Developing Communities Become Self-Sustaining

Hairston Foundation CEO Roosevelt Hairston and his daughter, Sophia, say Global Volunteers’ Reaching Children’s Potential Program (RCP) in Tanzania reflects their commitment to advance self-determination for rural Tanzanian communities. As team members, they witnessed the long-range vision of ending childhood stunting and improving families’ health and nutrition. Read on to learn about their personal and […]

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October 29, 2022/by Michele Gran
Group Volunteering, Service-Learning Tanzania

Students Discover Power in Partnership

Global Volunteers’ Reaching Children’s Potential (RCP) Program benefits from a range of carefully nurtured partnerships in the USA and Tanzania. Two such partners are the University of Central Missouri (UCM), which facilitates scholarships for 12 students each year to participate on one of our service programs, and Rise Against Hunger (RAH) which supplies the fortified […]

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October 19, 2022/by Michele Gran
Family Volunteering, Ripple Effect Tanzania

Family Retraces Mother’s Footsteps in Tanzania

In 1996, Wichita retiree Barbara Pate joined her first Global Volunteers Service Program – headed for Tanzania. A blooming adventurer, and recently a widow, she chose the African country partially to satisfy her curiosity about the continent. She remembered it as a meaningful, enlightening experience, writing in her journal that she was surprised (and grateful) […]

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September 19, 2022/by Michele Gran
Conversational English Poland

Summer with Volunteers was the “Best Experience of his Life”

When Russia invaded Ukraine early in 2022, our Poland host partner knew the wider Siedlce community would soon welcome refugees who would flee their homeland. Within weeks, Global Volunteers mobilized to help community organizations prepare and host women and children who arrived from areas under attack. By summer, children’s camps were being offered throughout Poland […]

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September 14, 2022/by Michele Gran
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