The Pangaea Project

Our mission is to provide youth from low-income families the opportunity to experience personal growth, to build a global perspective, and to become leaders in their own communities by engaging in both local and international service-learning projects that share a common theme.

The Pangaea Project is a program designed to engage youth from low-income families in creating solutions to the social and environmental issues that confront their communities, through participation in local and international service-learning projects that share a common theme. Civic responsibility, cultural diversity, self-awareness, and recognition of our shared humanity are the core values of the program. The program is founded on the belief that any given issue can be more deeply understood if it is framed in a global context and then experienced directly through service projects. By discovering within themselves the exhilarating sense of self-empowerment and ownership that comes with learning how to be proactive, the participants will gain an increased sense of accountability to society.

The Pangaea Project will bring leadership to the communities that need it most. Living within low-income neighborhoods in Portland and across the nation are potential leaders who historically have not had access to the same opportunities as youth from more affluent communities. Service-learning programs are available for those that can afford them, yet only one other program of this nature exists in the United States for low-income youth. The Pangaea Project will address this class discrepancy through innovative, solutions-based methods that will help cultivate the next generation of educated and involved citizens.

Each Project consists of three phases that are united by a social or environmental theme such as land use, education, health, or housing. Throughout the year, small groups of students will work collaboratively on community service projects, both locally and internationally. They will continually be challenged to develop their understanding of the chosen topic from a cross-cultural perspective.

The first component will take place during the participants second semester of their sophomore or junior year of high school, when they delve into an in-depth, cross-cultural study of the issue. They will learn how the issue affects their local community and innovative ways to address it, while they prepare to expand their understanding to a global perspective. Studying land use, for example, might include involvement with an urban forestry program, research into the history of why Portland is called “Stumptown”, and a field trip into the forests of the Northwest to learn more about logging and conservation.

During the second phase of the program, students spend their summer break traveling overseas to a non-westernized country to live with host families and work on a 6-week service project that is thematically connected to their home-based project and studies. The experience is intended to provide a concrete means to understand the connection between their own community and the broader world. A Project focused on land use would entail working with a tree planting organization in Mali that deals with the serious issues of deforestation and desertification. The Project will emphasize the existence of solutions and will then facilitate gathering the necessary skills such as teamwork, communication, and leadership, so that they may become agents of change in their own communities.

Upon return to the U.S., participants will work collaboratively on community-service projects and presentations that will utilize their new skills in a meaningful and educational capacity. Participants’ own communities will feel a direct impact from a volunteer force that will help to build low-income houses, plant trees, feed the homeless, and educate the public on how the same issues are dealt with across the world.

Opportunities will abound for students with the type of life experience, volunteer work and global perspective gained through a year with The Pangaea Project. Newly developed skill sets and an impressive resume for both college and job applications will benefit participants for years to come. The sustained, long-term impact will be self-aware and engaged youth who are inspired to work towards the betterment of both their own communities and the world.