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Think you need a degree in science to contribute to important scientific discoveries? Think again. All around the world, in fields ranging from astronomy to zoology, millions of everyday people are choosing to participate in the scientific process. Working in cooperation with scientists in pursuit of information, innovation, and dis­covery, these volunteers are following protocols, collect­ing and reviewing data, and sharing their observations. They are our neighbors, our in-laws, and people in...

In a 2014 essay that went viral, Pippa Biddle revealed the inequities and absurdities baked into voluntourism—the pairing of short-term, unskilled volunteer work with tourism. In the years since, Biddle has devoted herself to understanding the origins, intentions, and outcomes of a multibillion-dollar industry built on the premise of doing good, and she tracks that investigation in Ours to Explore. The flaws of voluntourism have included xenophobia, racism, paternalism, and a “West knows best”...

"A rare window on the inner life of an aid worker, on what it means to be a humanitarian around the hard edges of war, and on the certain drive to go on." James Orbinski, author of An Imperfect Offering In 2007 James Maskalyk set out for the contested border town of Abyei, Sudan, a doctor newly recruited by Médecins Sans Frontières', his days spent treating malnourished children, coping with a measles epidemic and watching for war. Worn thin by the struggle to meet overwhelming needs with few r...

The Origins of UNICEF traces the history of the founding of the world's most well-known and often controversial relief aid organization for children. UNICEF modeled itself after several national organizations as well as some of the early twentieth-century transnational and international relief aid organizations, catering to a clientele that many observers claimed would be impossible to resist or ignore. In only a few years, UNICEF's programs provided relief aid to millions of children in locatio...

Bill Gates is not only the world's most successful capitalist; he's the world's biggest philanthropist. Gates has approached philanthropy the same way he revolutionized computer software: with a fierce ambition to change the rules of the game. That's why at last year's annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Gates advocated a 'creative capitalism', in which big corporations should integrate doing good into their way of doing business. This controversial new idea is disc...

A unique feature of this guide is its dedicated focus on wildlife and environmental conservation volunteering. It is aimed at all three sectors of the age and career spectrum: young people such as gap year students and backpackers; the larger market of vacation conservation volunteers; and the early retired. Peter Lynch investigates rather than lists different types of organisations including charities, clearinghouses, eco-tour operators and travel agents. He audits, analyses and deconstructs th...

This fifth book in the Advances in Service-Learning Research series continues to expand the discussion of service-learning research and practice. The chapters were selected through a refereed, blind-review process from papers presented at the 4th Annual International K-H Service-Learning Research Conference held October 2004 in Greenville, South Carolina. The chapters focus on topics that address a variety of issues in higher education and teacher education and are organized into four sections....

Service-learning is entering a post-initiatory phase. At tertiary institutions of all types and sizes, service-learning programs are common and service-learning requirements for graduation are growing in popularity. Taken together -- alongside continued faculty interest in effective teaching these factors have raised the visibility and popularity of service-learning. Now the greater need in service-learning is not to prove the need for, or efficacy of, service-learning, but to turn the focus squ...