For my integrative experience, I took a gap semester and traveled with a gap year program called Carpe Diem. With Carpe, I traveled in a small group to Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Honduras for a total of 3 months. I lived in Guatemala and Nicaragua for 5 weeks each, and then stayed in CR and Honduras for only a week each. My trip consisted of traveling to and staying in a new place just about every week, which allowed me to see and experience a ton. During my experience, I learned a lot about sustainable tourism, sustainable volunteerism, and sustainable travel, and I wanted to share some things specifically about sustainable volunteerism, because service learning is something that many students consider when thinking about an integrative experience.

When we use the word “sustainable”, people most often think about the environment. Sustainability means to be friendly to the environment and to limit your impact on the Earth. However, in the case of sustainable volunteerism, sustainability actually mostly refers to its other definition, which is “able to be upheld or maintained.” Oftentimes, people enter into communities with the hopes to volunteer, but they go about it in the wrong way (not necessarily by fault of their own). Having an understanding of sustainable volunteerism can help to ensure that both the volunteer and the community are benefiting from a project. The first and probably most important part of sustainable volunteerism is the idea that the volunteer project was created by both the volunteer and the community, and that both parties were involved in the planning and discussion of the activity. Often, volunteers enter into a community and try to put a project into place, but they don’t consult with the community so the project isn’t needed or wanted by the community. By having an open discussion in which both parties are involved, it makes sure that everyone benefits. Part of this discussion should be assessing what the needs of the community are, and where there are some areas that they would like volunteers to assist.

Another key aspect of sustainable volunteerism is the idea that something is being put into place in a way in which it can be continued after the volunteers have left the community. This involves a lot of collaboration. For example, if a volunteer group enters a community with the hopes to start a project that stimulates the local economy, they won’t be doing any good if they start a bracelet making business without actually making sure that the local people learn how to produce the product and execute the business. This way, once the volunteers leave, the local people have been equipped with the tools necessary to continue growing the business. In general, when volunteering you should always go in with the understanding that you are going to learn from the people in the community in which you’re entering just as much, if not more, than they are going to learn from you.

Another key aspect of sustainable volunteerism is the understanding that you should not try and do activities for which you are not qualified. For example, there are many programs that bring students of any major and degree to Central America, for example, to provide medical care. It’s one thing if the volunteers are there to encourage oral hygiene and to discuss personal care, but if volunteers are undergraduate students with absolutely no medical training, they should at no time be providing actual medical care to people anywhere in the world because this could ultimately just end up causing more harm, despite the fact that everyone had good intentions. Volunteerism should be a mutually beneficial, openly discussed partnership between an organization and a community to ensure that everyone is benefiting. I had many amazing, humbling experiences volunteering during my time abroad, and I am so thankful that I learned about sustainable volunteerism so that I can continue to make sure that whenever I am volunteering, I can maximize my ability to provide assistance.