Our goal is to make international volunteer and adventure travel opportunities more accessible to college students throughout the U.S. and Canada.

We hope that you will decide to make the most out of your break by participating in a trip that will enrich your college experience and that may well change your life!

Why Volunteer?

You probably assume that volunteering abroad is an incredible way to make a difference, and it is. But the benefits of volunteer work do not end with giving back. The experience of volunteering will enable you to intimately interact with a local community, allowing for meaningful friendships and powerful learning. As a volunteer, you won’t be learning facts and figures, you’ll be learning first-hand, both about a new country and about yourself—opening up tremendous opportunities for personal growth.

Make a Difference

Encountour volunteer placements are arranged in cooperation with local community and non-profit organizations to ensure that volunteer work is meaningful and relevant. Whether it’s building a home for an impoverished family, teaching neglected children, or helping a local farming cooperative achieve self-sufficiency, the important work that you perform will make a real difference.

All Encountour accommodations and arrangements are made through local providers, so the money you spend will be directly supporting the local economy.

Learn

Our philosophy is that there’s no better way to learn about something than to experience it first-hand. Encountour volunteer trips are loaded with unique experiences that will truly enable you to learn about a people, country, culture, and way of life that is very different than your own.

Unlike tourists who take a nice photo-op and then move on, volunteers engage with a local community. And because the community appreciates that you’re there to help them, they often open up to you about their lives, enabling you to understand the real country far better than any tourist.

By working closely with community members as you support their local development efforts, you will benefit from countless learning opportunities. This in-depth and meaningful exposure to the lives of locals may very well change your perspective, and will definitely make you a more worldly individual.

Personal Growth

Volunteering is an incredible way to learn more about yourself and to grow as the result of your experience.

As you are placed in unfamiliar situations, you will be challenged to step out of your comfort zone. Most volunteers never thought that they could teach a classroom of children in a foreign language, or lay concrete, or climb an active volcano. But those same volunteers soon find themselves with adorable kids running to greet them, or standing next to a newly built house, or walking alongside a river of hot-lava while looking over a breathtaking vista. Little is more fulfilling than accomplishing a feat you once thought to be impossible.

Stand Apart from the Pack

Volunteer work can also help you in more tangible ways. Employers, graduate schools, and fellowships are all looking for things that distinguish you from other candidates. Here is how volunteering might set you apart:

• Your volunteer experience will demonstrate initiative, passion, and maturity.
• You will gain valuable international experience, including practice communicating across cultures
• You will enhance your ability to work effectively in a team
• You will improve your Spanish

Plus, your international volunteer experience will ensure that you always have interesting stories to share, whether with friends or interviewers.