Steve Fox Celebrates 17 Service Programs

Steve Fox tutors students in the Cook Islands.

Global Volunteers salutes Steve Fox, a dedicated Global Volunteer, who has served on 17 short-term service programs with us.  Steve began his journey as a Global Volunteer back in 2003 in Minnesota, helping immigrants to converse in English.  From then on, he was hooked, and went on to serve with us in Australia, West Virginia, Costa Rica, Mississippi, Mexico, Hungary, Peru, Montana, Ecuador, Cook Islands, St. Lucia, Jamaica, Vietnam and Cuba.

Steve doing maintenance work at the community center in Ciego de Avila, Cuba.

Steve notes, ” Almost all ‘teaching’ assignments are not real teaching moments but more tutoring and encouraging these students to improve. And yes, in a 2 week time frame, you can see some improvement. For myself, I like the labor projects. You work along-side of the people of the community and while you may not communicate well with them, they appreciate to have others around. It is a great opportunity to show them the human side of America, and that is a great feeling. Finally, for myself, the greatest opportunity is to see another part of the world and for a brief time share and learn of another culture.”

Steve served again in Cuba, last March. Our Team Leader, Julie Knudsen described Steve an exemplary, experienced Global Volunteer and a true inspiration to the team. She noted, “Steve was always a good sport, jumping in to help wherever help was needed.  For example,  he worked on the labor maintenance team, where he never stopped, and kept on going with a smile. After finishing his maintenance work, he took the extra time to work with students from varying levels of English speaking skill, to help improve their ability to converse in English”. Julie was also very grateful for Steve’s help, advice and perspective as a respected veteran Global Volunteer.

Global Volunteers and the local people in the communities he has served is tremendously grateful to Steve Fox for his incredible contributions.