- Our Organization-

The Step Outside Initiative, Corp. was formed in Februrary 2008 in response to the growing popularity surrounding international volunteering. We discovered that many 15-25 year olds were overwhelmed by the number of choices when looking for opportunities to become a pro-active member of our global community. At the same time, parents and educators we spoke to expressed the challenges they encountered in advising students - they often didn't have enough information to uncover the differences between programs, or the strengths and weaknesses of the options.

Step Outside aims to answer the questions surrounding international volunteer programs, inspire confidence in those already interested, and help those who aren’t discover the exciting world of global volunteering, service-learning, and more. Our experiences have taught us that hands on engagement is the best way to learn, and there is no better way to discover the many cultures that share this planet than interacting with them to acheive a common goal.

 We believe that we are living in an increasingly global society.  As a global society we face the challenges of interacting and understanding distant cultures.  Often times these challenges result in cultural misunderstandings which can lead to missed opportunites and disagreements, and in an extreme case it can mean potential war.  As younger generations begin to grow up in this increasingly global society Step Outside calls upon them to take a pro-active role in our global society. 

Cross-cultural understanding begins with an education that engages the student with global issues through service-learning.