As part of API programs, students participate in Curated Experiences designed to enhance students’ cultural immersion in their host city. One of our most beloved Curated Experience type is a category called API Gives Back, which connects students with local communities through hands-on service, building empathy, cultural understanding, and meaningful impact beyond the classroom. Here is an example from Madrid:
In Madrid, giving back means stepping directly into the rhythm of the city, whether that’s a busy street corner in the heart of the action or the quiet, essential work that keeps a community’s most vulnerable members supported. Two partnerships anchor the API Gives Back experience here, each offering students a distinct way to connect with their host city.
Championing Madrid’s Shelter Animals
Right on bustling Fuencarral Street, students join a high-impact volunteer event supporting a local animal shelter’s mission to find its animals forever homes. Students engage directly with the public, distribute informational materials, collect donations, and advocate for the shelter’s cause — spending an afternoon as visible champions for animal welfare in one of Madrid’s busiest urban settings. It’s one of the newest additions to the Madrid lineup, and the team is excited to bring it fully online.
Volunteering with Cáritas Madrid
Cáritas Madrid is one of the city’s largest social assistance organizations, and API students are matched to roles that fit their Spanish language level and interests. Students with intermediate to advanced Spanish take on direct-interaction roles — accompanying elderly community members, supporting vulnerable families, or assisting at reception centers for migrants and people experiencing homelessness. Students with basic or beginner Spanish contribute just as meaningfully through logistical and administrative work: organizing donations, supporting the fair trade shop, or helping run food drives. Students who’ve completed this experience consistently describe it as one of the highlights of their time in Madrid.
