United Planet

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United Planet For 24 Years United Planet offers volunteer opportunities world wide, creating a global community.
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Volunteers can make a global impact in local communities while also gaining real-life experience, expanding worldviews, and bridging cross-cultural barriers by immersing in another culture!

Empowering girls and women starts with creating opportunities for them to thrive. At United Planet, we believe every gir...
10/13/2026

Empowering girls and women starts with creating opportunities for them to thrive.

At United Planet, we believe every girl deserves the opportunity to learn, grow, discover her potential, and shape her own future. And that work extends beyond a single day—it’s about supporting communities and initiatives that help make these opportunities possible.

Through our women’s empowerment volunteer programs, volunteers can support local organizations working alongside girls and women around the world. From helping girls with homework and educational activities to supporting women’s shelters, counseling centers, leadership programs, and skills development initiatives, these experiences foster learning, connection, and community-led change.

Across countries including Honduras, India, Moldova, Nepal, and Peru, our local partners work to support women and girls facing challenging circumstances, helping create pathways toward greater confidence, independence, and opportunity.

Because empowering girls isn’t just about supporting who they are today. It’s about helping create a world where they can become the leaders, educators, changemakers, and community builders of tomorrow.

Through meaningful service, cross-cultural connection, and community partnerships, we can all play a part in building that future.

Learn more about United Planet’s women’s empowerment volunteer opportunities at unitedplanet.org

United Planet at the Latinx 2026 Symposium! - Register here: http://latinxinstitute.antioch.edu/symposiumWe’re proud to ...
10/12/2026

United Planet at the Latinx 2026 Symposium! - Register here: http://latinxinstitute.antioch.edu/symposium

We’re proud to share that United Planet CEO Jill Tracy will be representing United Planet at the Latinx 2026 Symposium: “Remembering Latin American Roots: Reclaiming Our Historical Truths and Traditions.”

Jill will lead a session titled “Guaraní Roots in the Heart of South America,” exploring the deep cultural, spiritual, and historical roots of the Guaraní people. Drawing on her lived experience, language fluency, and scholarly research, she will share insights into Guaraní cosmology, resilience, and contemporary identity—inviting participants to explore Latin American heritage through an Indigenous, land-based lens.

The symposium celebrates the rich traditions, languages, art, music, cuisine, and contributions of Latin American communities while honoring histories and legacies that deserve to be remembered and shared.

At United Planet, we believe that learning from different cultures and listening to the stories of communities around the world are essential to building cross-cultural understanding and a more connected world.

We’re excited for Jill to contribute to this important conversation and help bring Indigenous perspectives and histories into focus.

You don’t always have to travel across the world to make an impact.A few months ago, our virtual volunteers joined organ...
10/06/2026

You don’t always have to travel across the world to make an impact.

A few months ago, our virtual volunteers joined organizations and communities around the world, contributing their time, skills, ideas, and perspectives, all from the comfort of home.

And what better way to understand the experience than hearing directly from the people who lived it?

For our volunteers, virtual volunteering is more than logging on and completing a task. It’s an opportunity to collaborate across cultures, support meaningful projects, learn from people around the world, and be part of something bigger than yourself.

Distance doesn’t have to be a barrier to connection.

You can learn. You can contribute. You can build global connections. And you can make an impact—from wherever you are.

Ready to make your own global impact from home?

Comment GLOBAL for more information

What if your next Quest started with something you already love? Maybe you’re the person who would…🐢 spend hours watchin...
10/05/2026

What if your next Quest started with something you already love?

Maybe you’re the person who would…

🐢 spend hours watching sea turtles and learning about marine life
🎭 rather experience a culture than simply visit it
🍜 plan your travels around the food
🌿 feel happiest exploring forests, mountains, and the great outdoors

Whatever sparks your curiosity, let it lead you somewhere new.

With United Planet, your interests can become a starting point for meaningful global experiences—from sea turtle conservation in Costa Rica and environmental projects in Nepal and South Africa, to cultural immersion in Japan and Peru and food and cultural discovery in Vietnam.

Because a Quest isn’t just about where you go.

It’s about what you care about, what you want to learn, and how you choose to connect with the world.

So, if you could build a Quest around something you love, what would it be?

United Planet welcomes its newly elected Board Officers!We’re excited to welcome:Michael Steinberg — Chair of the BoardA...
10/01/2026

United Planet welcomes its newly elected Board Officers!

We’re excited to welcome:

Michael Steinberg — Chair of the Board
Amy Kemmerer — Treasurer
João Chagas — Secretary

With experience spanning international education, nonprofit leadership, financial stewardship, compliance, and organizational development, our new officers bring valuable expertise to United Planet. We look forward to their contributions as we continue working to foster global understanding and positive change through international service and cross-cultural engagement.

We also want to express our sincere gratitude to outgoing Chair Tim Castano and outgoing Secretary Tracey Lesetar-Smith for their leadership, dedication, and service. Thank you for the time and care you have given to United Planet and its mission. 💙

Please join us in congratulating Michael, Amy, and João as they step into their new roles, and in thanking Tim and Tracey for their contributions!

We received a postcard from the Philippines! 🇵🇭And this one came with a story.One of our United Planet volunteers recent...
09/23/2026

We received a postcard from the Philippines! 🇵🇭

And this one came with a story.

One of our United Planet volunteers recently spent two meaningful months in Cebu City, discovering the Philippines through its culture, food, communities, and, most importantly, its people.

From mangoes, turon, and ube to conversations with local university interns, international volunteers, tour guides, shop workers, and community members, every day brought a new perspective.

The experience also offered a deeper look at the realities of everyday life in the Philippines, including the ways economic challenges can shape communities and individual choices.

As they reflected: “The people I met and the contrast between the beauty of the Philippines and the challenges many communities face left a lasting impression on me.”

Some postcards bring memories.
This one brought a new perspective. 🌏💙

Today, on the International Day of Peace, we join people around the world in reflecting on what it means to create a mor...
09/21/2026

Today, on the International Day of Peace, we join people around the world in reflecting on what it means to create a more peaceful future.

Peace isn't only about resolving conflicts. It can also begin with something as simple—and as powerful—as choosing to listen to someone else's story, learn about another culture, or approach differences with curiosity rather than fear.

At United Planet, our work is grounded in the belief that service, cultural exchange, and meaningful global connections can help build understanding between people and communities.

Every interaction is an opportunity to build a bridge.

Every new perspective is an opportunity to grow.

Every act of empathy is a step toward a more connected world.

This International Day of Peace, let's each ask: What can I do to create more understanding, connection, and compassion in my community?

Peace starts with all of us.

09/01/2026

A scholarship can be more than financial support. It can be a doorway to a completely different way of seeing the world.

The David Santulli Scholarship for Relational Diplomacy was created to honor the founder of United Planet and his lifelong belief that meaningful relationships across cultures can help build a more peaceful and united world.

Dave’s own journey toward creating United Planet began with an experience he had as a teenager in Russia. During that trip, a conversation with a Russian woman made him recognize how fear and misunderstanding can grow between people who have never had the chance to truly know one another.

That realization stayed with him.

Years later, after living and traveling abroad, Dave came to understand just how deeply his own life had been shaped by the friendships and relationships he formed with people from different cultures. Those experiences eventually became part of the foundation for United Planet.

Today, that legacy continues through the David Santulli Scholarship for Relational Diplomacy.

Each year, one exceptional individual will receive scholarship support to participate in a United Planet Long-Term Quest—an immersive experience of living and volunteering abroad for 6–12 months.

We’re looking for someone with exceptional character, leadership potential, global curiosity, and a commitment to service. Someone who believes in connection over conflict and wants to create meaningful impact through relationships.

📅 Applications for the 2027 scholarship are now open

But we also need your help.

A scholarship like this is only possible because people choose to invest in the next generation of global citizens.

Your donation can help one deserving person go beyond borders.

It can help them experience another culture, contribute to a local community, build relationships across differences, and bring those lessons home to create positive change.

This November, United Planet will celebrate 25 years of building a global community, one relationship at a time.

As we celebrate where we’ve come from, we’re also looking toward the people who will carry this mission into the future.

Join us in honoring Dave’s legacy.

Donate to the David Santulli Scholarship and help make a life-changing global experience possible for someone who might not otherwise have the opportunity.

Learn more about the scholarship, upcoming application, and other United Planet scholarships: [United Planet Scholarships & Grants] https://unitedplanet.org/fundraising/scholarships-grants

Equality creates opportunity. Opportunity creates change. Today, on Women’s Equality Day, we celebrate the women who cha...
08/26/2026

Equality creates opportunity. Opportunity creates change.

Today, on Women’s Equality Day, we celebrate the women who challenged barriers, raised their voices, and helped create opportunities for generations to come.

August 26 marks the certification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, a historic milestone in the fight for women’s voting rights in the United States. But the journey toward equality did not end there.

At United Planet, we believe that a more peaceful and connected world is one where everyone has the opportunity to learn, lead, contribute, and be heard.

When women and girls are empowered to participate fully in their communities, they don't just benefit individually—their leadership and ideas strengthen the communities around them.

Today, we celebrate the women who lead, serve, challenge, inspire, and create change.

And we recommit to building a world where equality is not simply an aspiration, but an opportunity available to everyone.

Happy Women’s Equality Day.

08/26/2026

Some time ago, students from Andrean High School embarked on an unforgettable Quest to Costa Rica with United Planet.

Through cultural immersion, community service, conservation, and experiential learning, students had the opportunity to step outside the classroom and experience Costa Rica in a meaningful way.

We asked them to describe their Costa Rica Quest in one word and share their favorite part of the experience.

From exploring the Santa Elena Cloud Forest and contributing to conservation projects, to living with host families, learning about local culture, cooking, dancing, and connecting with communities—each student returned with their own story to tell.

Every journey is different. Every perspective is unique. And sometimes, the best way to understand the impact of a global experience is to hear directly from the students who lived it.

Let’s hear from them. What was their favorite part of the Quest?

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