After a 30-year professional teaching career, Global Volunteers alumna Pat Harper said she’s not finished teaching! In her 80s when she first served with us in Vietnam in 2014, she was drawn to the the opportunity to again help others learn. The joy she found teaching in retirement on a service program in Cuba not […]
Barb Holdridge was intrigued when her good friend recommended a new type of travel. But, she didn’t know she’d also catch the volunteering abroad “bug” so quickly! Another volunteer on a different service program encouraged her to branch out further. Sixteen years and 10 programs afterward, Barb says that international volunteer travel is “the” way […]
The benefits of volunteering are endless across the spectrum of life. Service to others helps us understand the world and ourselves, connect with people, impact events and make a difference. During her gap year, 18 – year – old Cassidy Richardson learned all these lessons and more in the Cook Islands with Global Volunteers. She […]
In her second installment, Vietnam Volunteer Diana Swansen reflects on how she and her teammates experienced compassion while volunteering in Hanoi, Vietnam. As an aviation trainer, she transmitted her passion for aviation to a classroom full of sixth-graders, fascinating them with maps and charts; and nurturing their dreams of become pilots. As a volunteer, she inspired her […]
Geri says serving in Ciego de Ávila, Cuba for two weeks with her daughter Bridget was a journey of discovery. Together they acquired new skills, explored a new culture, and learned something new about each other. Bridget and Geri share a few highlights of “volunteering as mother and daughter” with Marketing Assistant and Greece Country […]
Juliet Cooke from Wellington New Zealand said teaching at St. Joseph’s School in Rarotonga was a unique way to learn about the Cook Islands culture from the “inside.” In the classrooms, she helped students improve their reading and literacy skills and supported their teachers. In an interview with Marketing Assistant Millie Pinakoulaki, Juliet describes the highlights […]
Vietnam Volunteer Diana Swansen notices the “simple things” in life that remind her of humanity’s goodness. She offers her optimistic perspective with us, and her teammates, when teaching conversational English on a Vietnam Service Program in Hanoi. What is good taste? For most people, taste is simply a matter of flavor. But how do we experience goodness? For me, […]
You can become part of a team of volunteer teachers and students in Crete. When you help the children of Malevizi with their English skills, you experience their culture through their lives and interests. Val, a Greece Volunteer, shares her journal entry recalling two unforgettable weeks of “summer language camp” with eager Greek students: “As […]
A native of China, Bao Li Wang is our China Country Manager. Bao Li joined the Global Volunteers team in 2005 and manages and leads all teams in Xi’an and Kunming, China. While on a service program in China, Bao Li is your guide on everything – volunteering, culture, development, and travel in China. Bao […]
Global Volunteer Jedd Waason said a desire to help others led him to the Cook Islands with Global Volunteers. What he gained, he said, was a clearer focus on a career in education. Read on to learn how his teaching assignment became a glimpse into his future. My volunteer trip to the Cook Islands was […]