#VolunteerAbroadBecause

Madeline Marquardt is a writer, photographer, and paddler currently based in Grand Marais, Minnesota. She has worked as a sea kayaking guide in the Apostle Islands, English teacher in Armenia, and paddled and hiked extensively throughout the Lake Superior Region and state of Michigan. You can find her at madelinemarquardt.com, where she writes about the outdoors and adventure travel.

Note: This interview is part of a series from Learning Service.

Emily is a Registered Nurse with extensive experience volunteering abroad. She believes that travel can change the world for the better—if we do it right—and she's passionate about helping people find ways to give back to the communities they visit.

I stumbled onto volunteering abroad by accident when a friend recommended it to me. I had never considered it beforehand. So I entered the world of volunteering with very little information and learnt that there’s only so much research you can do. 

Note: This interview is part of a series from Learning Service.

The many ways that volunteering abroad can be harmful are being exposed in the media with increasing frequency.

My name is Josh Moshenberg, and I'm a 17 year old photographer from Toronto. I have been in love with three things since I was very young: photography, travel, and helping the world. The journey to Kenya I just embarked on was an amazing mix of all three of those things. 

Steph Dyson is a travel writer and educational volunteer who writers about adventurous travel and meaningful volunteering – two ways of travelling that she views as life-changing and accessible means of experiencing the world.

John Dwyer, of Over50andOverseas.com (read another of our interviews with him here!), notes, “In 1991 I joined the Peace Corps. My Peace Corps service in Guatemala in 1991-92 led to work as a United Nations Volunteer in the first elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the Bosnian War. I have since worked elections in 12 other countries.