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Institutional Programs

Turn Purpose Into a Movement at Your Institution.

Build the community — and your leadership may help support your own immersion.

Start My Institutional Program → Schedule a Call → Ask a Question
Lead at Your Institution · Institutional Program Founder or Leader

Build the community. Bring people together around service, learning, and global experience.

As an Institutional Program Leader, you take a more active leadership role at your institution — bringing interested people together, creating a community around international service, coordinating peer engagement, and helping your program grow from interest into participation.

You help provide the organization and continuity behind the movement at your institution: welcoming new members, coordinating meetings and activities, working alongside Ambassadors and other partners, and establishing something that can continue after you move on.

Build the Community

Bring people at your institution together around shared interests in service, learning, and global engagement.

Lead the Organization

Coordinate meetings, outreach, engagement at your institution, and the development of a participating cohort.

Build Something That Lasts

Create a program at your institution that can continue beyond one immersion or one group of leaders.

Not ready to establish a program? Explore the Institutional Ambassador path.

The Full Participant Experience

One Immersion. More Ways to Grow.

One immersion can create meaningful opportunities to advance career development, leadership, academic growth, service-learning, mentorship, and global citizenship — all while contributing to the communities we serve.

Leadership Recognition

Lead at your institution. Build community. Help make international service possible for your people — and for yourself.

As an Institutional Ambassador or Institutional Program Leader, you can play an important role in bringing people together around meaningful international service-learning opportunities. Through peer outreach, engagement at your institution, and leadership, you help build awareness, connect interested people with Help2Serve.Care, and contribute to the development of a qualifying cohort.

Your leadership can help support your own immersion. In recognition of meaningful leadership and contribution to cohort development, eligible Institutional Ambassadors and Institutional Program Leaders may receive full program-cost coverage for the 14-day Phase One Service-Learning Immersion and the optional 7-day Phase Two Cultural Exploration, and a leadership honorarium, and thus also eligible round-trip economy airfare.

Level One

Contributor

Peer outreach, awareness-building & early cohort development
Documented leadership record
  • Introduce peers to the opportunity and help answer questions
  • Support information sessions and conversations at your institution
  • Contribute to the development of an emerging cohort

Verified service and leadership hours, plus a letter of recognition for your file.

Level Two

Level Leadership

Sustained peer leadership and cohort development
Tiered Phase One and optional Phase Two program-cost support — Tier One
  • Everything in Level One, sustained across a recruitment and preparation cycle
  • Coordinate peer engagement with other leaders at your institution
  • Help maintain communication and momentum as the cohort develops
  • Qualifying cohort milestones of 5, 10, or 15 participants determine the level of program-cost support
  • Coverage for your Phase One Service-Learning Immersion and the optional Phase Two Cultural Exploration — includes program fees, lodging, in-country transportation, scheduled activities and participant meals.

Adds a written reference and portfolio-ready documentation of your leadership.

Level Three

Level Leadership

Sustained leadership that brings a full cohort together
Full Phase One and optional Phase Two program-cost coverage + Honorarium — Tier Two
  • Everything in Level Two
  • Establish or sustain an Institutional Program, lead an Ambassador team, or otherwise take a substantial leadership role at your institution
  • Demonstrate sustained peer engagement and cohort development across the cycle
  • A qualifying cohort of at least 20 participants is required for full program-cost coverage
  • At the full qualifying cohort level + level three leadership — leadership at this level is recognized with an honorarium and thus eligibility for covered round-trip economy airfare, subject to program terms and travel limits.

Adds Founding Leader standing with Help2Serve.Care.

You Don’t Have to Build a Cohort Alone.

The minimum cohort of 20 participants may be developed collectively. Institutional Ambassadors, Institutional Program Leaders, and other approved partners at your institution may all contribute to the development of the same cohort.

Your eligibility is based on documented leadership, meaningful peer engagement, and contribution to cohort development. Individual leaders are not required to independently generate the minimum cohort of 20 participants.

Exact cohort levels and award amounts are confirmed when you apply — and we’ll help you plan toward the level you’re aiming for. On top of the award, we help your whole group fundraise, so cost is not the thing that stops anyone.

Leadership first.

The Leadership Program is designed to recognize people who take an active role in building awareness at their institution, strengthening peer engagement, and creating a community around service-learning.

Program-cost awards recognize this broader leadership contribution and are not represented as payment for individual referrals.

All awards and travel benefits are subject to Help2Serve.Care eligibility requirements, applicable program terms, and any relevant policies or approvals of your institution.

Leadership & Professional Growth

This is a leadership role — and it looks like one on paper.

Founding or leading an Institutional Program isn’t a favor you do for us. It’s an opportunity that pays you back in experience, recognition, and growth you can carry into any career.

How It Works

A Simple 4-Step Path

1
Express InterestTell us about you and your institution.
2
Build Your TeamRecruit 3–5 founding members. We'll help with interest meeting templates and outreach.
3
Register With Your InstitutionComplete your institution's approval process. We provide materials to support advisor integration.
4
Launch at Your InstitutionHost your first interest meeting. Start building momentum. We're with you every step.
What We Provide

You Lead. We Support.

You're not starting from scratch. We provide everything you need to launch and sustain a thriving program.

Why This Is Credible

You’re Leading Something Proven.

Since 1995
Serving communities in need
3
Returned Peace Corps Volunteers on staff
Year-Round
Local leadership on the ground
Community-Led
Every project, every site

The programs are led with established community partners and in-country teams; participants are not being asked to promote an untested or unsupported experience. Meet the people behind the work →

Become an Institutional Program Founder or Leader

No Pitch. No Pressure. Just a Conversation.

Express interest and grab the free resources to launch your program.

Book a 15-minute conversation

Pick a time that works for you. The conversation is exploratory — there is nothing to prepare.

Book your 15-minute conversation →
Free Resources — Instant Download

Subscribe to get this free guide — we'll email you monthly service updates too.

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Subscribe to get this free guide — we'll email you monthly service updates too.

We respect your inbox. Unsubscribe anytime.

Take the First Step

Start an Institutional Program — Express Interest

Tell us about your institution and we'll send the Institutional Program Playbook and connect you with a mentor.

Exciting — your program journey starts now.
We'll send the Institutional Program Playbook and introduce you to a mentor.

Our team brings decades of firsthand experience building ethical, locally guided service programs. Institutional Program Leadership is how the next group joins that work — one institution, one leader, at a time.

Jason Speaks, PhD, FNP-C, RN
Founder & Executive Director, Help2Serve.Care
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer

Explore further

Ready to move? Start your application or inquiry — or if you are institutional partner, send participants without traveling.

Help2Serve.Care — Meaningful Service. Global Learning. Fully supported international programs with expert on-the-ground teams in global health, conservation, community development and education, guiding you each step of the way. International service-learning in Belize, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and beyond. 50+ years combined experience, local in-country leadership, 3 Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, global health and academic expertise.
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