Our Story
Discover how LearnServe International has empowered young changemakers since 2003.
About
LearnServe
“What makes you mad?”
We ask each student as they join LearnServe. We invite them to identify the social injustices and environmental challenges that matter to them most, before asking the essential follow-up question,
“What are you going to do about it?”
These questions have guided our nearly 2000 students and alumni over the past 20+ years as they research, design, and launch action projects to serve their schools and communities. And they have guided the LearnServe team as we help young people discover their confidence, power, and voice as changemakers.
LearnServe
Mission
LearnServe International empowers young people to become changemakers in their communities and the world, equipping them with the skills and mindset of global citizens to tackle social challenges through impactful actions.
LearnServe
Vision
LearnServe envisions a global community of young people equipped with the vision of a leader, the tenacity of an entrepreneur, and the passion and compassion of a changemaker.
LearnServe
Values
Trust Youth
Challenge Assumptions
Bring Joy
Engage the World
Act with Intention
Strive for Justice
2003-2007 | The world is small. Think Big!
Recently retired after a career in education and school leadership, LearnServe Founder Hugh Riddleberger worried about his students' "superficial scratch on the surface of service." He wanted them to establish a relationship with the communities they were going to serve, to truly understand their needs and how they could help. He wanted them to truly understand the world. With initial support from Share Our Strength and the Case Foundation, Hugh invited a group of teachers to travel with him on a two-week service trip during the summer of 2003. The following summer these 11 teachers were joined by 14 students representing 6 diverse schools from across the Washington, DC region. The students and teachers returned transformed; Hugh realized he was on to something. The idea grew into the Center for International Education, housed at the Washington International School thanks to champions Dick Hall and Kathy Kemper. With support from Sabine Keinath, we added trips to Zambia, Paraguay, China, and Japan, and helped students and teachers bring both the lessons they learned, and the ethos of service, back to their schools, families, and communities. By 2006 we realized that these summers abroad were just the beginning. Scott Rechler joined Hugh and the nascent LearnServe team to develop an action-oriented extracurricular program. We introduced our 7-month Fellows Program as a hands-on, practical introduction to social entrepreneurship. Students explored critical business and leadership skills such as strategic planning, financial literacy, and cross-cultural communication -- and applied these skills to pressing global issues such as climate change, poverty, and health. In Spring 2007, the first 20 Fellows formally pitched their social ventures, action projects to serve their schools and communities.
2008-2013 | LearnServe International
In 2008 we outgrew our home at the Washington International School, incorporating as the independent non-profit organization LearnServe International. Kathy Kemper, Dick Hall, and Cathy Tinsley joined Hugh Riddleberger as founding Board members. In 2010, Hugh retired (again), transitioning leadership of LearnServe to Co-Directors Sabine Keinath and Scott Rechler, and Board Chair Cathy Tinsley. During this period we doubled the size of our Fellows Program to nearly 40 students, and introduced two new LearnServe Abroad destinations: Jamaica and South Africa.
2014-2019 | Incubating Impact + Seeding Social Innovation
In honor of LearnServe's 10th anniversary, we undertook our first long-term impact evaluation, conducted by ICF International. Reflecting on the powerful ways in which LearnServe shapes our students' personal and professional trajectories, and in conversation with our partner schools, we identified two opportunities to expand our reach: (1) How can we ensure students who start their social entrepreneurship journey with LearnServe receive the support they need through implementation and growth? (2) How can we work more deeply with schools, offering curriculum materials, training, and support to help teachers to bring social entrepreneurship into the school day. In 2014 we introduced the LearnServe Incubator, a year-long program for alumni of the LearnServe Fellows Program, designed to maximize the impact of the most promising social ventures and deepen students' understanding of social entrepreneurship. Students are paired 1:1 with mentors throughout the program, refine their ventures using a variation of the Lean Startup approach, and pitch their ideas in a capstone pitch competition. In 2014 we also launched Seeding Social Innovation, our school-based social entrepreneurship program. We license our curriculum and offer training and project planning tools to help teachers bring social innovation into the classroom. We piloted the approach at four schools, reaching 150 students who designed more than 50 social ventures. We have developed both a high school and middle school version of our curriculum. We developed our Student Action Summit into an annual student-led conference that brought together LearnServe students and alumni enrolled in the Fellows, Incubator, and Abroad programs, as well as students from our Seeding Social Innovation partner schools and peer community-based organizations. The Summit offered current students the opportunity to prototype their venture ideas, while attracting new students to the organization.
2020-2024 | Growing a Global Fellowship
As the COVID pandemic forced us to cancel all in-person programming, we made the intentional decision to quickly pivot to a virtual format, so that we could continue to show up for our students. Within days we transitioned our weekly in-person Fellows sessions to Zoom, culminating in our first virtual pitch competition. We introduced a virtual Hackathon as our own prototype for virtual facilitation. This grew into our inaugural Global Summer Fellowship, a 5-week intensive virtual exchange with students from the United States and Zambia. Leaning into the virtual format, we were able to engage students from Zambia -- and eventually South Africa, Paraguay, Ecuador, and across the United States -- in LearnServe programs in new and powerful ways. At the same time, we invested in our first Student Success Advocates, LearnServe staff members dedicated to student wellbeing and their social and emotional development. Our pivot from in-person experiences to virtual exchanges gave us a moment to reflect on access to LearnServe programs, as well as the imbalance implicit in most student travel programs. Within the U.S. we realized that while Zoom sessions increased accessibility for some, other students did not have consistent or reliable spaces in which to connect, or craved the in-person community and support. In our global programs, we appreciated that virtual programming allowed students from outside the United States to participate as full program participants -- not just hosts or beneficiaries. As we returned to in-person programs, we re-imagined the structure and sequence of LearnServe Programs. The LearnServe Fellows Program, our first-year introduction to social entrepreneurship, is offered both in-person and virtually to students in the Washington, DC region. At the same time, through our program partners in Zambia, Paraguay, and Costa Rica, the LearnServe Fellows Program is taught, in person, in each of those three countries. Our Incubator has remained a virtual program, engaging students from the U.S., Zambia, Paraguay, and Costa Rica in a second year of mentorship and project development. In summer 2024 we re-introduced global travel as a capstone experience to the LearnServe Incubator. Through our new model, students from all participating countries benefit from the same pre-travel social entrepreneurship training, first as LearnServe Fellows and then as part of the Incubator. They get to know each other over two years, and are well-versed in social entrepreneurship, the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, and their own social ventures before they meet in person -- spending two weeks deepening their skills, and identities, as changemakers.
2025-2030 | We the Change
As we embark on our next chapter, we remain committed to growing a locally-grounded, globally-connected community of young changemakers -- individuals who do not ordinarily have the opportunity to meet each other and work together, but are ready to share and learn. United by a common drive to make the world a better place, they represent a diverse and growing network of young people across the Washington, DC region, Africa, and Latin America. Across our programs we directly serve more than 150 students each year, and through them reach hundreds more.
History of LearnServe
Our Team Members
Our passionate team brings innovation, commitment, and care, ensuring every student thrives as confident changemakers and global leaders.
Our Board Members
Meet the visionary leaders who champion youth empowerment. Diverse, dedicated, driving our mission forward with experience and passion.
Emeritus Board Members
Our passionate team brings innovation, commitment, and care, ensuring every student thrives as confident changemakers and global leaders.
Our
Partners
LearnServe delivers its programs outside the United States in partnership with incredible nonprofits around the world:
Njira fights poverty and gender-based violence in Lusaka, Zambia, through high quality and relevant free vocational skills training.
Dale1Mano is a youth development organization in Bataan, Limon providing leadership and service-learning opportunities to young people. Through their transformative programs, they empower young people to be changemakers in their communities.
The CCC is a community center in Santa Ana at the outskirts of Asunción. The community center provides a variety of leadership development possibilities for youth from Santa Ana, as well as classes and youth led community projects.