By Jade Floyd
This is the first post in a two-part series by Jade Floyd. Ms. Floyd works in international public affairs in Washington, DC and serves on the Board of Catalogue non-profit DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative, a non-profit devoted to providing free arts education experiences for DC public school students and teachers. Follow her on Twitter: @DcThisWeek.
International Volunteering
My arrival to Bangkok was filled with trepidation and butterflies. I thought to myself on the plane that I was completely nuts and had lost my senses. Had I just flown around the world to a country where I knew no one to volunteer with children for a month teaching them art? Surely they had perfectly good teachers there who could give them instruction. I had spent months planning for this international volunteer program. From the onset, I knew that I wanted to partake in a program that focused on children. And after serving for four years on the board of directors for a DC-based arts education nonprofit, two years volunteer teaching at a children’s art center for two, and countless hours fundraising for similar organizations, I decided it was time to take a plunge and expand my reach outside of the US.