Dear Friends and Family,

I am so excited to tell you about my plans to volunteer in Latin America this summer with Amigos de las Americas!

I will be volunteering with AMIGOS in Chimborazo, Ecuador for 6 weeks. The overall project will focus on youth entrepreneurship.

Since its founding in 1965, AMIGOS has inspired more than 30,000 high school and college students to live a life of purpose as critically engaged citizens and leaders. Today, AMIGOS creates opportunities for young people to collaborate, design, and lead development projects based on the needs and desires of their host communities. To prepare, I am enrolled in an extensive AMIGOS training program with a group of other students from high schools up and down the South Bay and Peninsula. We are learning important skills in areas such as cultural sensitivity, community development practices, youth leadership, teaching young children, and how to protect my own health & safety. 

I am super excited to go to AMIGOS Ecuador. The opportunity to experience a world outside of the bubble I have grown up in is invaluable. Additionally, six weeks abroad in a small rural village with a host family is something I have never experienced and I am looking forward to the life experience, culture shift, community service, Spanish speaking practice, and six weeks with no cell phone!

As a non-profit organization, AMIGOS relies on its participants to help raise funds each year to meet the costs of its programs. Your support will directly affect the work AMIGOS does and the community-based project that I will be working on this Summer. With your help, AMIGOS can transform us participants and our Latin American communities and have impact on both a local and a global level.

I would be very grateful for any level of support you can give. Just click on the Donate button above to donate online. Or, you can send a check made out to "Amigos de las Americas" and return it to me directly. 

Thank you so much for your support!