I love finding ways to give back to my community and other communities, and volunteering while on vacation is a natural extension of that. The SuperKids project through Great Shape! Inc. is a fantastic example of this and so worth signing up for.
The quick version is that I spent a week teaching computer skills to elementary students through the SuperKids project, and it is one of the most rewarding decisions I have made. I absolutely adored the students and the other volunteers, and I had plenty of time to relax each day after teaching.
This is a very approachable way that you can also participate in, with programs offered throughout the year in Caribbean destinations where you don’t have to be an expert. Your days are full, but you have your afternoons, evenings, and weekends to relax in luxury.
I have been going to Beaches Resorts in Turks and Caicos every year for a girls’ trip since 2015. In the last several years, I noticed volunteer dentists at the resort, but I never realized what exactly they were doing or who they were with.
Early last summer, I saw a post from a Great Shape! Inc. volunteer in a Facebook group I belong to, and all the puzzle pieces fell into place. I was immediately intrigued by the organization she described and decided to take the plunge.
Great Shape! Inc. generously covered my program fee last year, though I paid my way to and from the island, as well as providing and shipping all the school supplies I provided for the program.
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What Is Great Shape! Inc. and Their Programs?
Great Shape! Inc. is a nonprofit organization that facilitates humanitarian projects across the Caribbean. Their SuperKids project specifically tackles the historically low literacy rates in Jamaica by providing intensive literacy, math, and computer tutoring.
In addition to SuperKids, which happens in Jamaica in cooperation with the Ministry of Education each fall, Great Shape! Inc. also runs a Teach the Teachers program that focuses on professional development for local Jamaican educators in the summer.
Outside education, Great Shape! Inc. also focuses on dental and eye care health. The iCARE project offers eye exams, prescription glasses, surgeries, and education in Jamaica.
The dental program is called 1000 Smiles and has clinics in Antigua, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Grenada, Turks & Caicos, and the Bahamas throughout the year where residents can receive free dental care. This is exactly what I had seen on my girls’ trips each year, and I know they were having fun.
The best part is that you do not need to be a teacher, a dentist, or an optometrist to make a difference and volunteer with Great Shape! Inc. They constantly need general volunteers to help register patients, manage the lines, sanitize equipment, and assist the medical professionals, as well as assist the certified teachers in the lessons at the schools.
I was assigned to the computer tutoring team, but you don’t know which area you’ll work on when you first sign up. The program managers review the volunteers and their areas of expertise and interest and assign each person to a school and team based on a combination of those areas and program needs.
Many of these children do not have access to technology at home, so teaching them basic computer skills opens up a greater set of educational resources and future job opportunities. The program is vital because it supplements the local education system and gives these students the focused attention they desperately need to succeed in a modern world.
What Makes This Volunteer Opportunity Different
Unlike drop-in volunteer tourism, where you may paint a wall for a few hours or read to children and leave, the SuperKids project is designed for long-term and measurable impact. This is not performative volunteering, and that’s exactly what attracted me to it.
Great Shape! Inc. works with the Ministry of Education in Jamaica to identify a set of elementary schools and then commits to that set for multiple years to make a massive impact on their learning and literacy. This past September was the first year at our specific set of elementary schools, and it was incredible to see the results.
The pre- and post-tests for math and literacy we administered during our time there showed a significant increase in the students’ proficiency in the two-week period. The volunteering overall happens for two weeks, but you can sign up for either one or both weeks, giving you flexibility with your schedule.
You are assigned to a single elementary school and program team for the duration of your trip, which means you work with the same small groups of students every single day. This structure allows you to really get to know the children, understand their individual learning styles, and develop strong relationships with them.
I volunteered for Week One, and when I said goodbye to the students at the end of our sessions that Friday, I got so many hugs and “Why can’t you stay?” questions from the children. Honestly, I wish I had signed up for both weeks because I did not want to leave them!
The Impact of Hurricane Melissa
Last year, shortly after we left Jamaica, we heard about a massive incoming hurricane. This one wasn’t hype, and it hit Jamaica hard.
Yes, resorts closed for months on end, but it impacted far more than just the tourist-facing areas. People’s homes were destroyed, their businesses, their livelihoods, and more.
Simply getting access to food and clean water, let alone safe shelter, was a challenge for months on end. That struggle continues today, and Great Shape! Inc. has worked hard to bring hurricane relief supplies to the island to distribute to those who need them.
Ironically, this is how Great Shape! Inc. was founded 40 years ago, after Hurricane Gilbert, when long-time Jamaica visitors recognized the devastation that impacted those they had grown to care about so much from their time there. They gathered what supplies they could and were on the first flight to Jamaica once flights resumed.
The program grew from there into what it is today with multiple facets working in concert with the Jamaican government and The Sandals Foundation to improve the lives of those who live there. Unfortunately, the scope of Hurricane Melissa means that many resorts in Jamaica remain closed, including three Sandals Resorts.
As the programs cannot run without housing for the volunteers who fly in, the 2026 programs look a little different from previous years. At this time, the Super Kids and Teach the Teachers programs will not run, and there are fewer weeks for the 1000 Smiles and iCARE programs, but those are still running.
The team behind Great Shape! Inc. is working hard to identify alternatives, but in the interim, applications just opened for the dental and eye care programs. It’s worth participating in those programs, but hopefully, I’ll also have updates on the education programs before 2027!
Do You Need To Be A Certified Teacher?
While many of those who are there for the SuperKids project are certified teachers or retired teachers, many – including me – are not. Certified teachers are incredibly valuable to the program, but anyone with a big heart, patience, and a willingness to help can be a successful volunteer.
Each classroom and set of students is different, and with a 40 percent literacy rate in Jamaica, the teaching always has to be flexible because students start at varying levels and many students don’t know basic concepts. Sometimes a lesson plan goes perfectly, and other times you have to pivot completely to keep the small group engaged.
As long as you are adaptable and come with a positive attitude, the program directors and lead teachers will make sure you have the guidance you need to be effective. Prior to the program, there are virtual orientations, and teacher teams meet to talk about their lesson plans and what they plan to do.
Best of all? Great Shape! Inc. has an incredibly high percentage of returning volunteers, so there are plenty of folks who know how things work to help you whenever you need it.
Does the Program Really Have an Impact?
The team at Great Shape! Inc. believes in making a measurable difference, not just showing up for the sake of showing up. On the first day, students are tested for their reading and math proficiency, and volunteers repeat those tests ten days later.
Every year, the work makes a significant difference in their abilities, and this is something that will stay with them forever. In 2025, the students’ literacy scores improved an average of 19.35 percent across all three schools and six grades. Math scores rose by an average of 7.51 percent across two schools (Revival – my school – was too small to offer math last year).
That’s with ten days of volunteer work. That’s not an entire school year, that’s not year over year. That’s real people making a real difference in two simple weeks.
How Long Does the Program Last?
The volunteering occurs during two back-to-back school weeks, and volunteers are at the schools from Monday to Friday during the school day. Volunteers can choose to sign up for one week or both weeks, depending on what works best.
You fly to Jamaica the Saturday before the program starts and fly out the Sunday after it ends, which gives you some “extra” downtime to enjoy the resort and relax outside your hard work. For the one week session, you’re there for eight nights and nine days, and the two week session has you there fifteen nights and sixteen days.
There is a required meet and greet on Saturday evening and Sunday morning has an orientation before your school week. If you signed up for both weeks, you participate in the sessions each week.
What Does Each Day Look Like?
Your day starts early with breakfast at the resort where all the volunteers stay, followed by a bus ride out to your assigned elementary school. Our school was a little over half an hour from the resort, but drives can be shorter or longer.
The school day varies slightly by school by typically lasts six and a half hours, with time for breaks. Our school broke for an entire hour for lunch, which is so much longer than I’m used to at home.
Once you arrive, you head to your volunteer spaces and get set up for the day with your materials. The resort also provides a prepacked lunch, so volunteers bring that from the bus to its designated space, as well.
The schools set up the schedules of which grades you work with at what times and when you have breaks, which remains consistent throughout the experience. You spend the morning working through the curriculum with your small groups, taking a break for lunch, and then doing afternoon sessions.
Each of the schools also offers the option to have a Jamaican lunch, and if you’re up for trying it, I highly recommend it as I preferred that to the sandwich fixings the resort sent. After the school day ends, the buses take you back to the resort where you can swim, relax, eat dinner, and prep for the next day.
At our school, Fridays are patty day, and did I mention you have the option to purchase patties? Bring cash to pay for them, as this is the one meal that the school didn’t provide, though you still had the resort sent lunch.
They are amazing, and I didn’t even get the one that the kids told me after lunch I should have tried. Next time, I’ll get the cheese. Promise.
The day is not ridiculously long, and I found that I had plenty of time to relax on the beach and enjoy the ocean before showing and getting ready for dinner. Weekends are free, except for the orientation meetings, so you have even more time to enjoy the resort.
What Is the Program Fee?
Volunteering abroad does come with some expenses since you are responsible for your own travel, though the Sandals Foundation generously provides the accommodations and food throughout your stay. Make sure to pay attention to your program dates, as they are not flexible, so that you are there on time.
Great Shape! Inc. also has a program fee of $850 to offset the costs not covered by the Sandals Foundation. It is actually a fantastic deal considering you are staying at an all-inclusive resort, and many people fundraise to cover their fees.
The fee remains the same whether you do one week of SuperKids volunteering or both weeks, which is a great incentive to stay if your schedule allows. The other Great Shape! Inc. programs have different fees, based on what they need to cover, but they are all reasonable when you consider the cost of a nine-day stay at a Sandals Resorts property.
The only other cost is the items that they ask you to bring as part of the program and any teacher gifts you want to leave behind. My friends were incredibly generous and donated pretty much everything I needed to bring with me, and I found that it was cheaper to bring a checked bag and pay for that than it was to ship containers ahead of time.
The other programs have slightly different fees that reflect the costs to run the program. And when you come back to volunteer another year, returning volunteers get a slight discount on their program fees.
Where Do Volunteers Stay?
Great Shape! Inc. works with The Sandals Foundation to determine the dates and location that volunteers will stay for each program. In 2025, we stayed at Beaches Negril, which is the first time that the group has stayed at a Beaches Resort in many years, as it has generally been a Sandals Resort location.
The one caveat I will put out there is that volunteers stay three to a room, so they encourage you to sign up with a friend or friends. I had two friends initially sign up with me, though one later had to drop out, and our room had two double beds, and we had a rollaway brought in for the third person.
We honestly were in the room just to shower and sleep, and all the volunteers are great, so it worked out well for us without being awkward. Great Shape! Inc. does their best to put compatible roommates together, and if you sign up as a couple, you can pay an additional program fee to not have a third person in your room.
What Do Volunteers Wear Each Day?
Since you are in a Jamaican school setting, they require modesty and neatness. During orientation, you receive that year’s SuperKids t-shirt and can wear that (or previous year shirts if you’re a repeat volunteer) with pants or a skirt, and skirts must be below your knee.
Other days, you can choose to wear dresses that cover your shoulders and don’t show cleavage or “nice” t-shirts with skirts or pants. Some principals are ok with capris, but others are not, and there is a dress code check before you head to the buses.
The schools generally have no air conditioning, and Jamaica is hot and humid, so make sure you wear lightweight clothing to avoid getting too hot. Shoes are less of a concern, though I wear comfy sneakers each day since I knew that I’d be on my feet for hours on end.
What Do Volunteers Need to Bring?
As for what to bring, there are two pieces to this. First, you need your general traveling to Jamaica items, and second, you need your school supplies that Great Shape! Inc. shares with you, and it’s a lot, to be honest.
Personally, I have a great beach packing list that I use, but generally, you will want to pack plenty of reef-safe sunscreen, bug spray, a reusable water bottle, and any personal snacks you might want during the school day. I also brought my swimsuits and cover-ups, as well as light sundresses to wear to dinner in the evening, but others wore their school-day clothes.
In addition, I came up with a list of items that I brought that I’m so grateful I did – and some that I wish I had, many of them related to the heat:
- Electrolyte packets to add to the water during the school day as the heat is no joke
- A rechargeable fan to help give a little breeze during the day (while the one I use on just about every warm weather trip is no longer sold, this version has the highest rating on battery life)
- Small reward stickers to give to students each day after our sessions for them to add to their nametags
- $1 per day to tip the bus driver (this is not optional, but please note that Sandals Resorts as a company prohibits tipping their employees)
- Money for the Friday patties, as this was the only meal the school did not provide to volunteers at no cost, as they buy the patties from locals, and they are amazingly delicious
- My collapsible water bottle, as it made it easy to know which water was mine and avoided waste
Volunteers are also told to bring a list of items that range from handheld dry-erase boards and erasers to pencils and books, as well as scissors, loose-leaf paper, and more. Those items go into the supply room on resort where teams can select the items they need each day, from reading-level books to index cards.
I put together an Amazon Wish List, and my friends really stepped up and purchased just about everything on the list and sometimes even more items than I included, which was so kind. The items are used as part of the program, with some – like feminine hygiene products – provided for use by students and the schools long after we’ve left.
In addition to what was on the supply list, there are other things I wish I had brought:
- A digital battery-operated clock with big numbers on the face to help us know how much time we had left in our sessions so we didn’t have to rush to get computers shut down and ready for the next class
- Presharpened pretty pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, and little fidgets for the students to give them as gifts on the last day and small rubber bands to wrap them up for kids
- Felt chair pads and strong glue to attach them because the noise of kids pushing chairs in and out from the computers was so loud
- Painters tape to attach classroom rules for the computer lab to the walls for the week as a reminder and to ensure they don’t damage the walls
- Power strips because there just aren’t enough outlets for the computer lab, and we struggled a few days
- Giant index cards to use as name cards by the computers since kids facing the computers meant we couldn’t see their nametags
On the literacy side, many of the students had skills at a lower level than their typical counterparts in the States, so teaching the basics becomes critical. The literacy tutors did a lot of work on orthographic mapping to help students start to learn their letters and letter sounds and move on to decoding and blending sounds.
ReadBright has a fantastic structured literacy program that uses a small footprint to help students start to connect the sounds to spelling and writing. They offer both a magnetic word builder and illustrated decodable readers that would be great to bring to utilize during your time volunteering and then leave behind for the teachers to continue the work.
The decodable readers are leveled and remind me a bit of the Bob Books I used with my own kids when they started reading but are far more in-depth. The 12-page storybooks focus on specific skills in each one and then build on those as you continue, along with comprehension questions at the end of each book to help ensure that students understand the books and increase their reading confidence and skills.
The magnetic word builder has a teacher’s guide, so even if you aren’t a certified teacher, you can effectively use this. This would be perfect to help connect sounds to letters and build word chains to learn phonics skills.
I have a set of each of these that I plan to bring to the SuperKids project this year, and I definitely plan to talk to friends and family to help gather more to bring so other volunteers can use them and there are more to leave behind for the schools to continue building the skills we work on.
How Do You Sign Up?
Whether you’re ready to sign up for the SuperKids project, Teach the Teacher, 1000 Smiles, or iCARE, it’s easy to apply on the Great Shape! Inc. website. When you apply for the program, you fill out the detailed form, and then the program leaders will get back to you to confirm your participation.
Your program fee is due a few months before the actual project dates. Don’t book your travel until you have your registration confirmation and the leadership team tells you to go ahead with the flight reservation.
The 2026 project details have been released for all the programs already, and spaces are limited. Find some friends, or sign up on your own, but this is definitely something you’ll want to do again and again.
As I mentioned, I was placed in the computer literacy team, and I loved it. I would happily do that again, and even after just one year, I would be willing to be the lead teacher there because I was so comfortable with all the help and support from the entire team.
SuperKids signup information
- Currently not running in 2026 due to the impacts of Hurricane Melissa
- Check back for alternatives the Great Shape! Inc. team is working on
- The team anticipates that 2027 will be back to normal, where applications open early in the year
Teach the Teachers signup information
- Currently not running in 2026 due to the impacts of Hurricane Melissa
- Check back for alternatives the Great Shape! Inc. team is working on
- The team anticipates that 2027 will be back to normal, where applications open early in the year
- Jamaica, nine program weeks to choose from with three of them already booked!
- July 31 to August 9
- August 15 to August 24 (limited spots remaining)
- October 16 to October 25
- October 24 to November 2
- Turks and Caicos, at Beaches Resorts
- October 17 to October 25
- October 25 to November 1
- Jamaica, May 1 to May 10
- Turks and Caicos, Beaches Resorts
- September 18 to September 27
The Lifelong Impact Of A Single Week
What you get out of this volunteer opportunity is almost impossible to put into words. I went into it hoping to teach students how to use a mouse, type on a keyboard, and navigate basic software, but I got so much more out of it than just that.
You get outside the resort and develop relationships with students and teachers who you would never otherwise meet. Every morning, we had a lesson in the local language from a volunteer, and you leave knowing you made a lasting impact on multiple lives.
I truly regretted not signing up for two weeks, but that’s what this year is for. So many of the students hugged me that last day and wanted to know why I could not stay longer. I told them I’d be back this year, and I fully intend to keep that promise.