What are good volunteering programs?

What are some good college travel or international service learning or volunteering programs that allow you to travel and learn at the same time? I don't want to necessarily take classes at a university abroad.

• I'm looking to travel during the summer after my sophomore year. Preferably a shorter duration trip as I need to volunteer and shadow to prepare for medical school during the summer as well. I've heard bad things about some of these service learning programs and am looking for advice as to which are the best.

• Answer:

  Would you like some good old fashioned labour at an Organic farm in Australia? http://www.wwoof.net/ This twitter account RT's/shares volunteer opportunities across the globe. https://twitter.com/UnitedPlanet There is the United Nations, ofcourse. http://www.unv.org/how-to-volunteer/short-term-assignments.html There are only a limited volunteering options that do not ask for money. And lesser still is the reach of these options. Hence, even the little options that are available (and looking out for help genuinely) are not visible in the deluge of information that is the internet. Back in the summer of 2013, I had applied to a volunteering opportunity with the Jamyang Foundation - to teach at a monastery in the Himalayas (actually very close to the Indo-Tibet Border, in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh). Free accommodation and food in the monastery. All I had to bear were my personal expenses, and travel to and fro the monastery. I believe you are looking for some such alternatives. Am not completely sure it is the same kind of learning you talk about in your question, but these are beautiful places with a lot of life lessons. Good luck...