Featured YAVs

Check here regularly for highlights of YAVs, both current and alumni.

Steve Gillard

We have made it past the first month of living in the Tucson Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) house, and it’s finally consistently below 100º F. It has been an intense month of transition into a new reality, and it would be easy for me to go on and on about the quirks and small things about our house (the physical building and my YAV family) that give it a unique personality. However, there has been one theme recently that has dominated my thoughts.

Read the rest of Steve’s story.

Emily Fletcher

The experience I’ve had this last year has been many things to me. I’ve been among people who have shared their lives as they’ve struggled though a whole spectrum of human experiences. I’ve seen acute parental concern, the loss of faith in fellow man, the bitter tears of a wounded child, and volumes of documentation representing the human cost of a terrible conflict.

Read the rest of Emily’s story.

Tony Baurichter

Nearly six months ago, when I first arrived in Miami, I met a 22-year-old we call “Haitian James.” Born in Haiti, he came to America to live with his aunt when he was about  four years old, and is now a permanent resident of the United States.

Read the rest of Tony’s story.