International student volunteers

International Student Volunteers (ISV) is a California-based non-profit organization that provides educational volunteer and travel adventure programs to university students and youth internationally.

Founded in 1982 by Randy Sykes under the name ‘Youth in Action’, ISV has been offering volunteer and adventure programs since 2002. Since 2002 over 10,000 students have traveled with ISV and contributed over one million hours of invaluable volunteer work to projects in Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica, The Dominican Republic, Romania, the USA, Thailand and Ecuador.

Most of ISV’s participants are university students in the USA, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. The ISV program is open to all interested individuals 18 and over (i.e. not limited to students), is offered during the summer months (both Northern and Southern Hemisphere summers), and is composed of a four week program in selected countries.

The program

Volunteer project

Participants spend their first two weeks in groups of about 10 plus an ISV leader/instructor, doing hands-on volunteer work directly with our partner host organizations. These are generally small, grass-roots organizations working to improve their local environment and/or the lives of the local community members. Some of the more internationally recognizable host organizations that ISV works with include : Habitat for Humanity, Conservation International and Conservation Volunteers Australia

Projects may be conservation, humanitarian (social community development) or a mixture of both. Past projects have included children’s education programs, bush land regeneration, sea turtle conservation, elephant rehabilitation, teaching English, house building projects, sustainable development and education projects and wildlife surveys and data collection.

In 2007 volunteers in New Zealand worked with Kuaka planting trees and working with New Zealand natives. Volunteers were also introduced and welcomed into the local Maori community.

Adventure tour

The second component of the program consists of two weeks of travel, exploration, discovery and adventure in the host country. Again, participants are in groups along with an ISV tour leader. Participants travel extensively throughout their host country and learn about the environment and culture of the country, while they experience as much of the natural beauty and diversity of the country through activities such as white water rafting, city tours, horse back riding, snorkeling, glacier treks, waterfall rappelling etc.

Other points of interest

Through their participation in this component of the program, some participants are eligible to earn upper division academic credits through with accredited institutions in several countries. However, it is an educational program for all participants regardless of whether or not they are earning credit. The program incorporates group discussions, daily journaling, guest speakers, etc, to encourage participants to gain as much from their experience as possible.

In 2007, ISV students reached the milestone of 1 million hours of volunteer work.

Because ISV is a Californian based non-profit public benefit corporation (501-C-3), students residing in the USA may also raise funds for the program thorough tax deductible sponsorship donations.

External links

* The ISV website: http://www.isvonline.com
* Participant youtube videos http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=isv&search=Search

References