WorldStrides Updates

Helping Hands Raises More Than $30,000 for Scholarship Recipients

In 2002, WorldStrides Helping Hands was established to ensure that exceptional students with financial difficulties can bridge the gap and experience our valuable travel programs. Funds for these scholarships are raised by employees through year-round fundraisers. Those funds are then matched by WorldStrides.

This year, more than $30,000 was raised and 28 students will receive scholarships. The deserving students include Litzy Lopez-Flores who lost her mother to cancer this year. As much as she wanted to join her classmates in Washington, D.C., her family could not afford it. “She has always done well academically, is always present in school, and she has maintained a positive attitude throughout her years. Anyone who knows Litzy would tell you what a positive and happy person she is – she never lets difficulties bring her down,” wrote her principal. This week, Litzy found out she was a scholarship recipient. Check out the video below!

Thank you to the Program Leaders who applied for Helping Hands Scholarships on behalf of these deserving young men and women. Here are a few of their stories:

–A student from Washington who is being raised by his ill grandparents

“He told me his grandparents adopted him because his parents were hardcore drug users. He doesn’t know where they are because they are criminals and are not in his life.”

–An at-risk student from California who refuses to let life bring him down

“His mother was killed in a drunk driving accident. This event and loss took a tremendous toll on him and his family yet most of us would never be able to tell by looking at his grades and by his demeanor.”

–A 10-year-old student from Ohio who lost his brother and mother

“I believe he is deserving of this trip because he has to endure more heart ache than a child who is ten years old should have to. He may never have the opportunity to travel on an awesome educational trip like this because of the family’s financial hardship.”

Stories like this affirm our commitment to making experiential learning accessible. The employees of WorldStrides are proud to contribute to this worthy cause. Congrats to all of the 2018 recipients.