As housing costs continue to challenge Dane County families, 15 alumni of international exchange programs (Fulbright Student Program, Peace Corps, etc.) are putting their commitment to service into action, helping build a home for two local families through Habitat for Humanity of Dane County.
The volunteers participated in Beyond Exchange, Great Lakes Impact 250, a three-day service project held Oct. 22-24 at Habitat for Humanity’s Owl Creek development. The group worked on the interior of a duplex on Horned Owl Drive in Southeast Madison, where two lower-income families are expected to move in by December.
(Photo by A. David Dahmer)
The project was created by Madison resident Dr. Roxie Hentz, a Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching alumna selected as the 2026 U.S. Exchange Alumni Fellow for the Great Lakes region. The 10-month fellowship connects alumni of U.S. government-sponsored international exchange programs across six states to collaborate on community service initiatives.
Hentz said her Fulbright experience in Durban, South Africa, in 2011 shaped how she approaches her work and relationships.
“It really changed my life. I also took my daughter, who was 15 at the time, and it was our first trip to the motherland. That experience, more than anything in my life, professionally shaped how I see the world and how I want to contribute to it, how I engage with people because of that experience,” Hentz tells Madison365. “It has now layered into everything that I do.”
Hentz would go on to create CEOs of Tomorrow, which offers programming and products that teach and nurture social entrepreneurship, inspiring youth to transform the world through business solutions that help people, environments, and communities in need. She also created Afro Discoveries, which helps people reconnect with their ancestral heritage in Africa.
“At CEOs of Tomorrow, we started taking kids out of the country because I saw what it did for my daughter,” Hentz said. “Now, through Afro Discoveries, I’m taking adults out of the country because of how it changes the way you see the world, especially today. It’s about creating global ties that last forever.”
As the 2026 U.S. Exchange Alumni Fellow for the Great Lakes region, Hentz has been tasked with developing opportunities for alumni of U.S. government-sponsored international exchange programs to connect, collaborate and strengthen their communities through service.
(Photo by A. David Dahmer)
Through the current Habitat for Humanity project, Hentz hopes participants will bring the lessons they learned abroad back to their own communities.
“As international exchange participants, we learn how to build relationships with people whose experiences differ from our own. How do we bring that back home, especially when our country is so divided? I wanted to find a way to bring people together while addressing Madison’s housing shortage and the need for affordable homes,” Hentz says. “I thought partnering with Habitat would be a great opportunity for people to take what they’ve learned abroad and apply it here.”
For Hentz, the work goes beyond completing construction tasks. It is an investment in families’ long-term stability.
“We’re not just doing tasks here,” she says. “We’re bringing in our time and our labor, so that we’re building stability long-term for families … generational.”
Jenny Ballweg, vice president of communications for Habitat for Humanity of Dane County, tells Madison365 that volunteers are essential to the organization’s work as rising home and land costs make affordable homeownership increasingly difficult.
“Right now, it’s really tough for families to find an affordable home,” Ballweg says. “Anything we can do to help takes a group effort, so we rely on as many partnerships, volunteer groups and donors as we can to keep building.”
Finding land is another challenge for Habitat in Dane County, where available property is limited and expensive.
“We really struggle to get land in Dane County,” Ballweg said. “Land is very expensive, and there’s not a ton of it, so we look for opportunities like this where we have a shovel-ready lot.”
For families who qualify for Habitat homeownership, the benefits can extend beyond having a place to live. Ballweg said many families reduce the number of jobs they need to work after moving from expensive rental housing into a Habitat home.
“A lot of our families go from working three or four jobs down to one or two,” she said. “They’re not paying really high rent anymore, and their mortgage is lower than the rent they were paying.
“It’s really tough out there for families to find an affordable home. So anything we can do to help with that, it definitely takes a group effort. So we have as many partnerships, as many volunteer groups, as many donors as we can to keep building.”
Habitat offers financing that includes zero-percent interest loans and monthly housing payments capped at 30% of a family’s income, Ballweg says.
Greater stability can also give children more space and opportunities at home.
“I’ve been with Habitat almost 10 years, and I’ve met a lot of the kids,” Ballweg says. “It’s pretty joyous for them. Some children experience their first sleepovers after moving into a home with enough room for friends, while others get their own bedroom or share with just one sibling for the first time.”
Work on this Owl Creek development home began in August and is expected to be finished sometime in December before Christmas.
(Photo by A. David Dahmer)
Hentz hopes the volunteers’ experience will encourage them to continue serving after the three-day project ends and inspire others to get involved.
“My hope is that I’ve now introduced Habitat to 15 folks, and hopefully that’s a ripple effect where they’ll share in their communities,” Hentz says. “They’ll come back and continue to volunteer because of the experience they’ve had here.
“So that was the goal: to plant the seed that hopefully continues to grow for folks in Madison, as it relates to getting affordable housing.”
