buildOn U.S.

We believe education is the first step out of extreme poverty in low-income countries and the first step toward progress here at home. buildOn’s curriculum helps students explore critical issues like youth violence, hunger, and inequality, and shows them how to take action on the challenges facing their local and global communities.

Our goal is for students to understand what their work accomplishes and to discover their own capacity to lead. Global education topics focus on buildOn’s partner countries, helping students see how central education is to expanding opportunity.

Once students learn about the issues facing their local and global communities, like gun violence and limited access to education, they create advocacy campaigns to address them. By educating their peers, organizing awareness events, and pushing for solutions, buildOn students discover the power of their own voices.

Select buildOn students take their service global through an intensive Trek experience. For up to ten days, they live and work alongside families in rural communities as they help build a school together.

Students dig foundations, make bricks, and mix concrete with community members. They return with a deeper commitment to education, stronger relationships, and a greater sense of possibility for their own lives.