Board of Directors

Overview

One Thousand Schools is a dynamic multifaceted nonprofit organization working in Honduras. Founded by CNN Hero, athlete and YouTube personality, Shin Fujiyama in 2007 - the organization's mission is to build 1,000 schools in rural areas across Honduras. The organization has evolved from its roots as a community-led project in a village called Villa Soleada where a sustainable community infrastructure was built in partnership with the organization from the ground up. There are 44 families who live in this rural village which has grown to become the home of multiple other projects - a K-12 Bilingual School, Children's Home for resilient displaced youth and a volunteer hostel which hosts volunteers from around the world each year who contribute to school construction projects. In an effort to contribute to sustainable employment for the people in Villa Soleada and contribute to the issue of a lack of educational facilities in the country - our construction team builds about 10 schools per year around the Country.

Current issues

From its inception, the organization was primarily youth led (formerly called Students Helping Honduras) with the majority of leadership stemming from successful college chapters regularly volunteering from the US. With over 100 schools built, the organization has evolved to need additional leadership to help us address issues of operational sustainability and reconstruction of our volunteer program post-covid when our travel program took a major hit, causing a shift in revenue efforts. In recent years, founder Fujiyama has supported the school builds program with long distance, multi marathons, launching him into YouTube fame. While Shin's efforts and the school build program is the main pillar of our mission, we continually search for balance to fund operating costs and our other important projects which are sensitive to fund as they involve displaced children.

Who are are looking for

We are in need of enthusiastic, participatory board members who can help us re-grow our position on college and high school campuses as a premier, successful volunteer program destination that has hosted nearly 10,000 volunteers on summer and winter break trips, as well as long term English teaching opportunities.

We are looking for leaders with connections in the University or High School travel space through sports, service learning, study abroad or language exchange programs. Founder Shin published a book in 2025, Green Oranges: A Journey Into Honduras to Find Redemption, Hope, and Transformation, which we would like to use as a tool to enter the high school education space.

In addition, we are also in search of strong event planners, preferably in the sport of running who have experience planning an executing mid-size charity running events.

If you don't have current experience in these areas, but are experienced and enthusiastic in general outreach, we would love to meet you as well.

What we offer

The impact of our work is direct. We welcome you in joining an extremely passionate, hard working, creative team who is dedicated to the sustainability and excellence of our signature education and child care programs in Villa Soleada while simultaneously pushing our mission forward to building more schools every year. You will be welcomed to join us on free trip to Honduras on a leadership-focused week where you will learn about the organization, meet our staff and participate in a service project. Joining us in Honduras is the best way to understand the scope of what we do and gain the perspective necessary to contribute fully to our team. This is not required but highly recommended to make the most out of your experience with us. Read about our incredible volunteer trips here and what your week will be like. https://shhkids.org/volunteer/

Requirements

If accepted to join the Board of Directors, you will begin a preliminary 6 month term to see if you feel we are a fit for your time and experience. After 6 months, you could be offered and additional 18 mo. term. Attendance at 4 quarterly board meetings is required, yet regularly scheduled weekly meetings contributing to events and trip promotion are offered (and fun!) Board members are required to contribute $1,000 annually to the organization, however this can be achieved through fundraising or participating as member of our Fundraising Event committee for a major revenue event.