Thailand: Koh Samui Island 
Japan: Kyoto 
Greece: Paros Island 
Spain: Seville 
Spain: Cadiz 
England: London 
Italy: Florence 
Italy: Rome 
Italy: Tuscania 
Italy: Tour of Italy 
Ireland: Dublin 
Australia: Sydney 
Semester / Academic Year 
Summer 
January / Winter
Developing global citizens through education abroad experiences is a core component of Athena’s mission. Athena developed S.O.S. to ensure that charity is incorporated at the heart of our programs, students, and organization.
S.O.S. has three important components: scholarship funds reserved for charity minded students, frequent Athena staff community service, and student-selected donations various world charities.
- Athena donates a percentage of our proceeds each year to featured charities.
- Developed as an opportunity for students to give back to the world that was so welcoming to them while they were abroad, to further instill the importance of service in relation to global citizenry.
- Upon return from an Athena education abroad experience, Athena enables each student to actively participate in the S.O.S. program by allowing them to decide which global charity they would like to support.
- Supporting students who already demonstrate traits of global citizenry through service, we reward them for their efforts through our various charity and global citizen scholarships from $1,000 to $8,000 per award.
- This population of students is a particularly important group to recognize, because the concept of giving back to the world and local communities cannot be overstated, and these students are perfect candidates for maximizing the experience of study abroad.
- Experiential learning opportunities are available to students at our partner institutions abroad ranging from course workshops and service internships to on-campus clubs and organizations.
- Leading by example, the Athena team supports our local Columbus, Ohio, community through monthly staff volunteer outings to various organizations.
- This ensures that our staff members put into practice the values that Athena values most.
- Local charities with which Athena has volunteered can be found on our Athena Staff Community Service page.
Charitable Organization Options
Compassion Without Borders
Compassion Without Borders is an all volunteer, grassroots non-profit that works to bring about humane reform for the animals of Mexico through spay and neuter, humane education and outreach, international rescue efforts, and humane euthanasia programs.
Every student that selects this charity will receive the story and photo of a dog that was rescued because of their donation.
Damien House
Located in Guayaquil Ecuador, Damien House is a residential hospital for patients suffering from Hansen's Disease, better known as leprosy. The hospital also treats a roster of around 700 outpatients. Quality medical care is provided seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. With the help of donations to the US-based Damien House organization, the staff is also able to provide patients with dental care, physical therapy, sanitary services, medication, and three well-balanced hot meals every day. Additionally, Damien House has a community outreach program that helps those who have been treated and cured to secure a home, find work, and participate in community activities so that they may return to living full lives.
FINCA International
FINCA's mission is to provide financial services to the world's lowest-income entrepreneurs so they can create jobs, build assets and improve their standard of living. FINCA offers loans, not grants, to low-income microentrepreneurs, because at the root of their poverty is lack of opportunity, not lack of desire to work. While many poor families have ideas for fostering their own employment by creating small businesses, few can access the capital they need to begin. They are excluded from conventional financial sources (e.g., commercial banks) because they lack credit ratings and assets to pledge as collateral.
A loan is borrowed, invested, and repaid, after which it can be used to stimulate yet another fledgling business. FINCA loans circulate throughout low-income communities until their effect is multiplied many times. See the website read about how a $42 loan helped a woman in Uganda expand her chicken business and as a result send her children to school.
Flying Horse Farms
Flying Horse Farms will enrich the lives of children with serious illnesses and their families by providing magical, transforming fun through year-round, medically-safe and cost-free camping experiences.
Flying Horse Farms is a provisional member of the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps, founded by Paul Newman. The camp is located in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, and sits on over 200 acres of land. Flying Horse Farms provides transformational camp experiences to many of the 16,000 children in Ohio facing serious medical conditions and life-threatening illnesses. One week, and one child at a time, Flying Horse Farms will transform patients back into kids, and give them the freedom and space to soak up childhood for all its worth - building campfires, swapping secrets, blazing trails, and creating memories that last forever.
SOME (So Others Might Eat)
SOME meets the immediate needs of Washington D.C.'s poor and homeless population, including food, clothing and showers. Once a person's basic needs are met, SOME is able to help poor and homeless adults and families address the root causes of homelessness. SOME operates programs to help individuals with behavioral health services, additions recovery, and transitional housing programs.
SOME is also addressing the severe lack of affordable housing in the District and offering job training to help clients earn a living wage. Elderly services are offered to provide care and support to this underserved population. Each day, SOME is restoring hope and dignity one person at a time.
Wild Goose Creative
Wild Goose Creative is located in Columbus, Ohio, and is a non-profit arts company committed to supporting, encouraging, and promoting all forms of art and artists. We focus on four main tenets: hospitality, community, education, and creativity, and seek to be a nexus to connect artists and build projects.
Our location in the artsy Clintonville neighborhood has already become a venue for workshops, events, concerts, art galleries, open houses, and culinary events, and will continue to be a location to give back to the individuals who make our community, and world, a more beautiful place.
Athena Involvement
