Our program has always believed that investing in one person’s education has an impact on others, such as their family or community. With this in mind, we ask all our students to carry out a community service project each year they are in the program. The first benefit is for the students themselves, as they are guided on how to identify the main problems in their community and plan an actions to help solve them. Our staff dedicates a significant portion of their time to providing individual guidance to each student as they plan their projects.

Second, the communities and organizations that host the volunteers have benefited from having people who contribute to the work they do. The organizations that can host our students are community-based organizations or public institutions—all nonprofit—that work for the benefit of their communities.

Finally, the students themselves benefit by gaining practical knowledge that can serve them in their future careers, making important connections, and establishing themselves as future professionals. In many cases, students secure jobs at the organizations where they volunteered—either immediately or later on—or are recommended by their host organizations to apply to other organizations.