Armed with school supplies, apparel and professional development expertise, team members from Rubicon International set off for Port-au-Prince, Haiti on September 27th, 2010. The mission of the team is to partner with various organizations and schools in offering support to children and teachers recovering from the January 2010 earthquake that wreaked havoc and destroyed over 4,800 schools in Haiti.

The trip, which is sponsored by the Rubicon Educational Foundation, was coordinated by Rubicon employees eager to continue making a difference in education where it is needed most. During the trip, the team will meet with educational leaders and identify potential projects that will benefit from the Rubicon Educational Foundation's support. On-the-ground discussions will enable the Rubicon Educational Foundation to build relationships critical to establishing focused assistance with a lasting and sustainable impact. Several organizations are known to be working and providing humanitarian aide in Haiti, and the Rubicon Team hopes to solidify partnerships that would increase the expediency and sustainability of the Rubicon Educational Foundation's effort to address the educational crisis.

While service learning is the basis for the group's mission to Haiti, it is a characteristic valued by the firm since its inception. The Rubicon Educational Foundation was created in 2006, and originated from the desire of Rubicon International's staff to "give back" to their worldwide community. The mission of the Foundation, "Building community and connections between educators engaged in service learning," is an underlying theme in the projects undertaken by the Foundation. In support of this mission, the Rubicon Educational Foundation's initial project focused in Banda Ache on the Malaysian Island of Sumatra, one of the areas hardest hit by the 2006 tsunami.

As part of this service model, the Rubicon Educational Foundation has launched a web portal designed to highlight service learning in action. The website showcases the tremendous range of service learning projects that schools around the world have initiated to support the efforts in Haiti and elsewhere. All schools are encouraged to contribute descriptions of their projects to the Rubicon Educational Foundation.

For more information, and for current updates on the mission to Haiti, visit http://servicelearning.rubiconef.org.