Align Your Travel With Your Values

Instead of focusing on “service work”—on the idea that short-term volunteers can contribute to communities abroad—we advocate a paradigm shift: we choose, instead, to focus on “learning service.”

Learning Service is a holistic experience and an acknowledgment that often it is the volunteer who stands to gain as much or more from the work. It is a commitment to making contributions that create positive impacts in the communities coupled with the humility to always listen and learn first.

Responsible travel is a tool for breaking down barriers and enhancing understanding between people and communities around the world.

And yet, the work of international education carries inherent imbalances with regard to issues of race, class, gender, privilege and power. We nurture a community of critical self-reflection and awareness of these themes and the way they impact our approach to global engagement.

We ask the questions and let students explore their own answers.

• Justice asks: What needs to be repaired or rebuilt?
• Equity asks: Who needs what to thrive?
• Diversity asks: Who’s in the room, and who isn’t?
• Inclusion asks: How do we create a sense of belonging?

All children, young people, and minors deserve the same protection regardless of age, race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, religious belief, sexual orientation, and gender identity. It is the responsibility of all of our employees and participants to do no harm to children and to engage in safeguarding, and this commitment is supported by our overall approach to programming and our guiding principles and policies.