ISSERV

About ISSERV

ISSERV (International Students & Scholars Engaged in Reaching out & Volunteering) is a program designed to encourage NC State’s international students, scholars, and family members to volunteer in the Raleigh community.  By volunteering, internationals interact with Americans and learn more about American culture, while also sharing their own culture.

Internationals can make a difference in the community through such organizations as the Food Bank of North Carolina, American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, Special Olympics, Building Together, Exploris, and Ten Thousand Villages. Opportunities include building a house, working with older adults, tutoring children, cleaning up rivers, etc. Participants choose their project and how much time they want to commit.

Upcoming ISSERV Events

Past ISSERV Events

The Green Chair Project

The Green Chair Project’s mission is working together to provide everyone the comforts of home. They reuse donated household furnishings to renew lives of participants referred from area programs who are recovering after homelessness, crisis or disaster. We worked with their team on an outdoor beautification project to prepare the site for a public welcoming event. 

MLK Day Backpack Buddies

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a national holiday marking the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. It is most often celebrated as a day of service. In conjunction with the Southeast Raleigh YMCA, Brown Bag Ministries Mission, and the Food Shuttle Backpack Buddies program, we worked to pack backpacks with healthy snacks and meals to send home to kids in the community who need access to food. 

The Diaper Bank of NC

The Diaper Bank of North Carolina’s mission is to promote and protect the dignity of each resident by ensuring that families with babies and children living with poverty have an adequate supply of diapers. We assisted in repackaging wipes and diapers to distribute out into the community. 

Yam Jam

The Society of St. Andrew hosts an annual sweet potato gleaning event called Yam Jam each fall in rural North Carolina. In October 2022, ISSERV participants volunteered on a farm in Benson and then brought back around 75 lbs of sweet potatoes to donate to NC State’s food pantry, Feed the Pack. 

In Need of Volunteers

We would also like to hear from nonprofit and community organizations that are in need of volunteers! If your organization has group volunteering opportunities available, please reach out to Maggie Harney, International Programs Coordinator (mkharney@ncsu.edu).