Serving American Community Program

Information Meeeting Schedule in Japan click here.

Program Overview

Serving American Community (SAC) is a two-week spring program that brings students from Waseda, Keio, Tokyo Chuo, and Obirin Universities together with Stanford students to learn about social issues confronting America today through academic discussions and hands-on volunteering.

The program for 2008 will be held from March 17th to March 30th. The focus of the 2008 program will be to explore the issues surrounding poverty and homelessness in the Bay Area.

To learn more about the Serving American Community program, view the activity calendar from 2007.

Day 1- Day 5

The first five days takes place at Stanford with an exciting schedule including group discussions, guest speakers, and workshops that help students prepare for working on projects and volunteering in the Bay Area community. These sessions are lead by Stanford coordinators, a Japan Coordinator and VIA Staff in English. We will take a deep look at how different entities work with poverty and homelessness such as the government, educational institutions, NPOs, religious affiliations, and corporations. The afternoons will consist of fieldtrips to places such as toutoring centers, homeless shelters, and soup kitchens.

Take a virtual tour of Stanford's campus!

Day 6- Day 10

Next, participants spend five days working on projects for various organizations around the Bay Area. These projects give participants opportunities to learn about issues through hands-on experience. Projects may include working with the homeless at Glide Memorial Church, cooking for homeless teens with Larkin Street Center, or taking a street retreat in an impoverished community with Faithful Fools. This amazing experience will allow students to apply what they learned the first few days to the real world.

Day 11 – Day 14

Finally, the last four days are a time to relax and also for reflection. Participants will stay in Marin to reflect on their experiences and also work on a final project together.

Post Program

During the following summer break, Stanford student coordinators visit SAC Waseda, Keio, Todai, Chuo and Obirin participants to experience service and culture in Japan for one week. With the cooperation of VIA staff and participants, service based activities are planned for the Stanford coordinators. 

Student Coordinators

One Japanese student (the Yosemite Fellow) and three Stanford students will participate in the program as Coordinators. They help plan activities and serve with the Japanese students on the volunteer projects. Stanford students who are interested in participating in the SAC program as a Student Coordinator, please see details here.

Why Join?

Do you ever feel like you can help people in need, but you don't know where to start? Do you want to learn about different ways to help your community? Are you ready for a life changing experience that will open your eyes to a new world? Travel to Stanford and San Francisco to get a deeper meaning of service and how to help fellow humans in their jurney through life. We will address how different entities help people in poverty and have deep discussions with students with the same interests and passions as you.

Why go to America? Learn about what American organizations and students do to help the impoverished communities. You will return to Japan with a different perspective on how you can serve others. The important thing is what we can learn from each other to improve how we help others.

Program Cost

$2600 which includes:

• Teaching and administration fees
• Scheduled out-of-class activities and transportation costs
• Transportation to/from San Francisco Airport and to/from Stanford
• Lodging during the program
• About half of the meals during the program
• VIA staff service 

* Cost does not include airfare, medical insurance, personal shopping and expenses, optional activities, and about half of the meals.

To Apply

For more information please go to the application page.

Information Meetings Schedule

Contact Information

For more information about this program, please contact Bina Zaitsu at bina@viaprograms.org

Support Organizations

The Hirayama Ikuo Volunteer Center (WAVOC) at Waseda University is a partner organization for VIA's Serving American Community (SAC) Program and the Asia-US Service-Learning (AUSL) Program.

Yosemite, Inc. supports VIA's Serving American Community (SAC) Program and the Asia-US Service-Learning (AUSL) Program by sponsoring the Yosemite Fellows, who are Student Coordinators from Japan. (Yosemite Inc. was founded by a VIA alumni, Zentai Tsuda, who joined the American Language and Culture (ALC) Program.)

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