The Pangaea Project facilitates nine-month leadership development programs that empower low-income high school students to become local leaders with global perspectives. Each program includes intensive leadership skill development, local and international service-learning, teambuilding, cross-cultural immersion, and the application of leadership skills in the local community. Pangaea’s Three Pillars of social justice, grassroots leadership, and global perspectives are woven throughout the nine-month program. Each year, a specific social justice issue such as Housing and Homelessness, Environmental Justice, or Labor Rights and Fair Trade serves as the theme, acting as a portal through which students learn about change-making, become inspired to act around an issue they feel passionate about, understand the interconnectedness of people across cultures, and build the empathy needed to take action.

Throughout the nine-months, students interact with “changemakers,” people locally and internationally who have overcome adversity to make a difference in their community in relation to the chosen theme. Pangaea participants meet, work alongside, and live with these grassroots community leaders, people who are not rich or famous, some of whom hail from backgrounds much like the students themselves, as participants grow to recognize their own capacity and motivation to become the changemakers that Portland needs.

In 2008, The Pangaea Project has implemented two core programs, the Environmental Justice program in Portland and Ecuador and the Labor Rights and Fair Trade program in Portland and Thailand. In this blog, students share with you their experiences during the International Inspiration phases in Ecuador and Thailand.

Mission Statement:
By engaging teenagers from underserved neighborhoods in local and international service-learning projects, The Pangaea Project promotes the development of leadership skills, increases global awareness, and fosters a commitment to work towards social change, profoundly transforming both the participants and their communities.