Pepperdine Volunteer Center

Volunteer Opportunities

Project Serve

Project Serve is an exciting Spring Break opportunity for teams of students to serve and minister in a variety of domestic and international locations.  It is an adventure designed to help you better understand the needs of our world while challenging your comfort zones.  On Project Serve, you will be a member of a team with a unified goal of service as you impact the community you visit and they impact you.  In the past, our teams have completed a multitude of meaningful tasks from indigenous tribal ministry in Panama to teaching English at an orphanage in the Dominican Republic to aiding inner-city schools in New York. There is something for everyone.  This year’s Project Serve includes new and exciting sites as well as sites with which we have a long-standing, positive relationship.  Our goal is to send out students who are ready and excited to serve who will soon realize that the people they serve will change them more than they can ever imagine.  You will have the tremendous opportunity to bring hope to people's lives as well as your own.  Should you choose to serve with Project Serve, your spring break will be a different kind of vacation, a vacation of service, growth, relationships, and memorable experiences.

Our teams are composed of and led by students.  Every team member plays a crucial role in the success of the project.  Team members must be willing and able to operate in diverse environments, as well as actively contribute to their teams in the months leading up to the trip.  More than any other qualification that we look for in applicants is a commitment to their team, to learning, and to working hard. 

Selection Process

It is the Volunteer Center's goal to place each student on a team that has the desire to go on Project Serve.  With a few exceptions, we have typically been able to accomplish this goal.  During the application process each applicant will have the opportunity to rank their top four trip choices.  Due to the high volume of applicants for international destinations, we only allow each participant to rank 2 international locations.  However, there is not a minimum number of locations you need to rank.  If participants are only interested in one trip, they may list only that one trip.  However, participants that limit themselves to one or two trips have a greater liklihood of not being placed on a Project Serve team if others are selected for their trip choices before them.  While we cannot guarentee that every participant is placed in one of their top four choices, we make every effort to do this.  When building teams we look at a few criteria: good team dynamics, balance of upper & under classmen, and men & women.  We also consider each individual's experience level and any specialized training/skills they have. Ultimately, we are looking to build teams that can learn and grow together and truly benefit the community they will be serving.

Additionally, we expect that each person selected to serve on Project Serve team is highly commited during the actual service experience and during pre-service preparation.  This inlcudes full involvement in team meetings, fundraisers, Project Serve events and ongoing communication with the Team Leader.  Failure to be a full participant may result in the removal of the member from the team.

Interviews for Team Leaders will be in the traditional interview style and will be conducted by the Project Serve Coordinators and the Volunteer Center's Associate Director.  Team Member interviews will be group experiential interviews and will last approximately 1.5 hours.  These interviews will be conducted by Team Leaders and the Project Serve Coordinators.

Project Serve Timeline

Frequently Asked Questions

For more information on Project Serve please contact Megan Pillar or Michael Miguel at projectserve@pepperdine.edu. You may also contact the Volunteer Center directly at (310) 506-4143.