5 Summer Programs for Teens That Teach Empathy Through Community Service

It is tough to be a teenager these days. High school plays out under a social media microscope, one that parents and young people can find difficult to free themselves from and focus instead on what is really important. To help expand their children’s horizons, improve their empathy and make a difference in their communities, parents (and teenagers eager to change the world) have several summer programs with community service elements to choose from.

With almost seven decades of experience, Putney’s educational student travel service taps into an international network of teachers, farmers, merchants, artisans and other organizations to allow high school students to safely step out of their comfort zone

One available trip, Community Service Tanzania, involves collaborating on small-scale construction projects like building a classroom, farming, teaching English to local children, market shopping and cooking combined with nature excursions and a stay in a remote Maasai village.

Apogee combines the power of an outdoor experience with achievable challenges and light volunteerism like food banks, orphanages, state parks, and farms, all tied closely to the communities students visit.

One of the banner service programs is a two-week stint in Puerto Rico where volunteers offer hurricane relief and work on community projects.

Rustic Pathways has been creating student adventures for 35 years. With over 100 itineraries in 19 countries (it also has spring break and gap year programs), trips range from a week in the Dominican Republic with a single day of service to the more intense Come With Nothing, Go Home Rich bare-bones itinerary in Thailand, where participants spend three weeks in the mountainous hill tribe region living and working with villagers.

The popularity of WE Day, a countrywide celebration of youth activism headlined by celebrities like Selena Gomez, Kelly Clarkson, Nelly and Malala Yousufzai, underscores the power of the ME to WE community service movement.

The organizations’ summer programs, called “take action camps” and youth volunteer trips to countries like Brazil, India, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Ethiopia, blend sightseeing and fun with rural community immersion to inspire self discovery and an appreciation for new cultures.

Visions is a mainstay service adventures, its itineraries veering more toward immersion (five to seven hours a day, four to five days a week). A long-standing program on offering poverty assistance on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana also focuses on land preservation and infrastructure projects.