Find an Opportunity
International volunteer opportunities*
For information on how to research international opportunities,
we suggest, "
How to Live Your Dream
of Volunteer Overseas." You can read an excerpt
here.
This and other resources are available for loan here at SEEDS and
Career Services.
Community development and public health
Environmental education and research
Travel and adventure abroad
Teaching English
Community development and public health
Through service Amigos provides leadership development opportunities for young people, promotes community development in Latin America, and facilitates multicultural understanding in the Americas.
Global Routes is a tax-exempt California-based nonprofit organization committed to offering experiences that allow people with different world views to engage each other in creating a global community. The future of that community is dependent upon understanding, open communication, mutual respect, and interdependence between diverse peoples. It also depends on the preservation of the cultural and natural environments in which we all live. To further this end, Global Routes designs educational service projects and internships that allow students of all ages to extend themselves by living and working with people in communities throughout the world.
Global Service Corps (GSC) provides cross-cultural learning and community service adventures for volunteers 20 years and older in Costa Rica, Kenya, and Thailand. Volunteers may work with education, the environment, or public health. Program options vary from two weeks to six months. They also offer student internship programs.
Global Volunteer Network is a nonprofit organization that places people in community projects in China, Ecuador, Ghana, Nepal, and Romania. Volunteers have the opportunity to participate in a variety of educational and community aid programs. Volunteers can be involved in areas such as teaching English, environmental work, health, and sanitation. This experience includes cultural home stays.
The programs center around a one-, two-, or three-week volunteer work experience in Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, or the United States. There is no age or language requirement.
Habitat for Humanity International
Habitat for Humanity International is a Christian organization that welcomes volunteers from all faiths who are committed to Habitat's goal of eliminating poverty housing. Its houses are sold with no profit made. Homeowners contribute "sweat equity," and house payments are recycled to build additional houses. Habitat brings families and communities together with volunteers and resources to build decent, affordable housing. In addition to local programs, Habitat offers a Global Village Program with a one- to three-week commitment and an international partner program with a three-year commitment.
Hungarian American Volunteer Experience
The HAVE program brings together American and Hungarian university students for two weeks of volunteerism in the countryside (such as flood relief, housing restoration, and playground-building). DIA organizes intercultural workshops on civil society, guest lectures on local politics, and cultural excursions to complement the volunteer work. DIA's program emphasizes the value of diversity and cross-cultural collaboration in addressing regional development needs.
Institute for International Cooperation & Development
IICD is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to promoting global understanding and international solidarity. IICD trains volunteers for work in community development projects in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. The programs offer participants an opportunity to work with people who are in need of assistance and to also use the experience to educate others about the state of the world and the people in it.
The International Partnership for Service Learning
By studying at a local university and serving 15-20 hours per week in a school, orphanage, health clinic or other agency addressing human needs, IPS-L students find their knowledge of the host culture– and of themselves– take on greater depth and meaning.
An organization funded by the U.S. government that employs volunteers to work abroad on any of a number of projects for two years. Most volunteers have a bachelor's degree and some specific skill training or prior work in the field.
Students Partnership Worldwide
SPW volunteers (working in Africa or Asia) are trained to use interactive and non-formal teaching methods and to involve the whole community in awareness-raising activities. Examples include street-dramas, inter-school football matches and large-scale health days. Through these types of events which attract large numbers of people, SPW volunteers encourage young people and their communities to talk openly about sensitive and taboo health issues such as HIV and AIDS. At the same time, volunteers are building the confidence of those participating in the event.
AJWS's Volunteer Summer program combines the study of social justice in a Jewish context and social service through hands-on community projects in the developing world or the former Soviet Union.
Environmental education and research
Earth Island Institute (EII) was founded in 1982 by David Brower to foster the work of creative, result-oriented people by providing organizational support in developing projects for the conservation, preservation, and restoration of the global environment. EII provides the freedom to develop program ideas, supported by services to help them pursue those ideas, with a minimum of bureaucracy.
An international nonprofit organization that supports scientific field research worldwide through its volunteers and scientists working together to improve our understanding of the planet. Earthwatch's mission is to build a sustainable world through an active partnership between scientist and citizen. Through public participation in field research, Earthwatch helps scientists gather data and communicate information that will empower people and governments to act wisely as global citizens.
TBI is an international partnership founded in 1990 to achieve excellence in watershed management towards the preservation of mountain lake watersheds around the world through the creation and support of motivated, multidisciplinary watershed-based education, leadership and partnership development, international exchange and science-based research.
Wildlands Studies, a unit of University of California Santa Barbara's Extended Learning Services, invites you to join our field teams in a search for answers to important environmental problems affecting endangered wildlife and threatened wildland ecosystems. Now in its 24th year, Wildlands Studies is offering onsite field research projects throughout the US and around the world.
General International Service, Travel, and Adventure Abroad
Operating volunteer programs in Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Peru, Russia, Tanzania, and Thailand, Cross-Cultural Solutions's programs offers a unique opportunity (in which volunteers are assigned based on thier individual skills and interests as well as the needs of the project) to work side-by-side with local people on locally designed and driven projects. Our volunteer programs are designed to facilitate hands-on service and cultural exchange in the aim of fostering cultural understanding.
Reality Tours offer an alternative way to travel; they allow people to go past what they read in the media and travel beyond hotels and beaches. Participants have the opportunity to meet with community leaders in Cuba, Haiti, South Africa, or Ireland. They can visit environmentally sustainable farming projects in Cuba, meet with artisans at crafts cooperatives in the fair trade movement, or learn about the arts and religions of Haiti, Thailand, Palestine, and Israel.
International Service Learning
ISL gives students the opportunity to volunteer abroad and gain college credit at the same time. With programs in Central America, Mexico, Africa, and Trinidad, service projects focus on serving the poor. The academic experiences offered can include interaction with host country universities, governmental institutes, field stations, and other professional resource persons.
Looking for help sorting through international service or work options? nGoAbroad is a referral service and clearinghouse that custom fits your skills, interests and goals to international humanitarian needs. For a fee, nGoAbroad gives you ~100 page goldmine that will open up the world for you: identifies where your skills are needed, integrates knowledge of international affairs, reveals fascinating models of cultural change, gives you an annotated list of organizations to work with and their contact information. nGoAbroad "hitches the horse to the carriage": applies your skills and interests to international needs.
VFP promotes International Voluntary Service as a means of intercultural education and community service. They provide workcamp programs where people from diverse backgrounds can work together to overcome the need, violence and environmental decay facing our planet.
Founded in 1948 the Winant and Clayton program invites volunteers to: Spend seven weeks working in Great Britain; perform valuable community service; develop personal skills; receive free room and board; enjoy the hospitality of British families; and experience a new culture!
Offers a guarantee for training and well paid work in Australia. They will provide a letter allowing you to get a work permit for up to three months with an employer in the outback of Australia. Jobs range from farming to teaching to working in a pub. There is a fee for this service, but you should be able to make enough money while you are there to cover it and then some.
Teaching English or foreign languages
Extensive resources, job listings, and chats for ESL/EFL teachers and students.
Information and advice about teaching English overseas.
IIE Internship Opportunity at IIE/Mexico
The Institute of International Education offers an internship program in the Office for Latin America, located in Mexico City. This internship provides students and recent graduates the opportunity to live abroad and gain practical experience within the field of international education, working for an international non-profit organization and a division of the Educational Information and Resources Branch of the U.S. Department of State. Interns will have the opportunity to work with the various IIE/Latin America educational exchange operations, including educational advising, publications, and scholarship programs.
Location: Mexico City
Duration: 3 to 4 months
Stipend: $400/month
Requirements: Completion of at least two years of college at U.S. university.
Ability to communicate well in both Spanish and English. Interest in International
Education. A strong skill level in basic software applications. For more information please contact:
Nichole Johnson Email: njohnson@iie.com.mx
Offers CELTA certification in Portland. (This is the most recognized certification worldwide). 200 SW Market St. #111, Portland, OR 97201, (503) 224-1960, info@ih-portland.com
International Teaching Resources
The University of California Irvine has compiled a great resource page for both links of international teaching opportunities and links to specific programs.
Learning Enterprises sends creative, energetic volunteers to villages in Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Mexico, Mauritius and China to teach English for the summer. Volunteers live with host families and conduct free English classes for children in rural communities.
List of TEFL certificate programs in the US with info.
Provides wonderful resources for students planning to teach English as a foreign language. This site includes information about TEFL training programs, ESL job listings, lesson plans, and TEFL resources.
Transworld Schools is Accredited by the State of California and Accredited by ACCET, and is internationally recognized for its quality training courses in the field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Transworld continuously updates its methodology and instruction to ensure that graduates are highly sought after in today's– and tomorrow's– changing, competitive English teaching language marketplace. Transworld also provides an extensive job placement service through their International Teaching Career Network where they assist all of their graduates in finding a position either in the US or overseas.
Listings of English Teaching Jobs abroad with no certification.
WorldTeach was founded by a group Harvard students in 1986 in response to the need for educational assistance in developing countries. Since its inception WorldTeach has placed thousands of volunteer educators in communities throughout Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe.
There are also a number of recruiting services listed below for international schools that mostly focus on private, international, or American schools in foreign countries. These are great, and may be the best bet for someone with a teaching credential. Unfortunately, many of these services ask for 2 years teaching experience for eligibility.
European Council of International Schools
Office of the Americas
105 Tuxford Terrace, Basking Ridge, New Jersey, 07920, USA
908-90- 0552
E-mail: malyecisna@aol.com
International Schools Services
ISS recruits for approximately 200 international American schools worldwide, including community-sponsored, company sponsored, and proprietary institutions. In most cases, the curriculum is U.S.-oriented and English is the language of instruction.
Each year Search Associates places over 750 teachers, administrators and interns in international schools throughout the world.
***DISCLAIMER: The Reed College SEEDS program supplies this web page as a tool to help Reed students and alumni gain access to a variety of volunteer opportunities. Reed College cannot and does not guarantee the accuracy of the information provided on this site. Students are strongly encouraged to research programs thoroughly before making a commitment. Students should report any problems or misleading information by emailing SEEDS or calling 503-777-7563.
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