International Student Volunteers (ISV) is looking for students from Utah State University to travel overseas this summer on its exciting volunteer and adventure programs.

Information meetings for interested students are being hosted Sept. 24 from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m..

Selected participants will have the opportunity to travel with a group of students from all over the world – 18 years and over – on volunteer projects and adventure tours to either Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Thailand and Eastern Europe. Most students will travel for one month but some students elect to travel from two weeks up to three months.

Traveling alongside professionally trained project and tour leaders, students will spend the first two weeks volunteering in real hands-on projects, in either social community development – improving the quality of impoverished villages, building houses for refugees, teaching children English, etc. – or conservation – working with endangered sea turtles, elephants and dolphins, ecosystem rehabilitation, environmental education, etc.

The second two weeks will launch participants into an adrenaline-filled cultural and adventure tour of their chosen country, involving such activities as white water rafting, glacier climbing, waterfall rappelling, scuba diving and jungle kayaking.

ISV’s campus representatives, Ameer Ali and Emma Wilson, said the organization is looking for fun, outgoing students to partake in the highly sort after programs.

Jenessa Talbot, who from Utah State University participated on the Dominican Republic program, said, “Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw and experienced in the Dominican Republic. Definitely a life changing event and motivating experience that I will never forget. Greatest experience in my life so far. It opens your eyes in ways you never thought possible. I am truly going home being a better person.”

ISV is a nonprofit organization that annually takes more than 4,000 students on its life-changing programs every year. Its mission statement is “to combine education, conservation and recreation into the most incredible experience of a lifetime, while giving back to the local communities in the countries in which we are traveling.” Because ISV is a not-for-profit organization, students can offset the cost of the program through tax-deductible sponsorship donations from the community.

Some students may also apply to receive academic credit for their participation in the ISV program as there is a strong educational element throughout the entire trip.

ISV will be hosting information meetings Thursday, Sept. 24, every hour on the hour from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. at the University Inn, Room 510, for those students interested in the program. More information on the program can be found at www.isvonline.org.