Last month, thousands of young people around the world once again came together in the spirit of helping others during Global Youth Service Day. With the tagline “Your Story Starts Today,” Youth Service America encouraged young people to see the power that they have right now and make a difference. Groups of Aspect exchange students around the U.S. started telling their stories by participating in diverse service projects, donating bags filled with goodies and resources to groups in need in their host communities. Today, we want to recognize and give a big thank you to everyone who participated and continues to tell their story, share their gifts and make the world a better place.

Aspect Foundation students in West Virginia took international kindness kits to a girls group home.

Aspect Foundation students volunteering at Homeless Backpacks in Washington

Homeless Backpacks is a non-profit 501c3 corporation committed to ending homelessness, by giving teens the help they need so they can focus on school, go on to graduate and become contributing citizens.

Aspect Foundation students volunteering at The Community Table in Wisconsin.

The Community Table’s mission is to serve balanced, nutritious meals in a safe, welcoming environment and to connect those in need with existing resources.

Giorgi from Georgia, Salma from West Bank, and Fadeela from Thailand volunteer at a Homeless Youth Resource Center in Utah for Global Youth Service Day!

Enrico from Brazil (front left) and Juan from Spain (back) volunteering at Feed My Starving Children with their host family in Arizona while learning how local communities come together to support our global community.

Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) is a Christian non-profit that provides nutritionally complete meals specifically formulated for malnourished children.

Exchange students and their host families in Texas volunteering with Soup Mobile where they made 3,800 sandwiches for folks in need!

SoupMobile is a ‘mobile’ soup kitchen and a faith-based 501 c(3) non-profit charity that ‘Feeds & Shelters’ the homeless in Texas.

Lisa from Kosovo helping out at a beach clean up in Washington for Earth Day.

“This Saturday I volunteered at the Sinclair Beach clean-up in Washington.  This community is truly amazing and I am so happy I had the opportunity to be a part of it, they organized this clean-up event and I was surprised by how many people showed up to help. We walked along the beach and picked up things that shouldn’t be there. I think our earth deserves that, we struggle a lot with littering and we did not just help pick the garbage up and throw it where it belongs but also raise awareness about how dangerous littering is to our environment. ” – Lisa from Kosovo

Exchange students in Utah present at a local elementary school! Their coordinator, Adele, gives a recap of their presentation below!

“We presented at an assembly for a local elementary school. It was so much fun! The students spoke in their native languages and we had kids guess what country they were from. The students then told about their country and things they like or found very different here. At the end we opened it up for questions and were amazed at the questions the littlest people asked. When we finished, the students each gave the Principal an Aspect bag filled with eggs for their Easter Egg Hunt at the end of the week. When we left we were invited back next month to do a full day of international games! I wish every day could be this fun!” – Adele, Coordinator in Utah

Thank you again to everyone who participated in Global Youth Service Day, and to all our other Aspect Foundation students who have volunteered their time throughout the year!

Interested in sharing YOUR corner of the world with an international exchange student? Learn more about becoming a host family at: