
Huck Charov, a senior at South Portland High School, said he was pleasantly surprised by the $20,000 challenge grant for his fundraiser to support students looking to study abroad. “It’s crazy,” he said. “I mean, we’re talking big numbers now.” Drew Johnson / Sentry
Traveling abroad and immersing oneself in another culture can be an eye-opening and even life-changing experience.
It certainly was for Huck Charov, a senior at South Portland High School, when he went to Sevilla, Spain, as part of the school’s study abroad program during his sophomore year.
“When I got back, I thought it was the most amazing thing ever,” Charov said.
Unfortunately, the cost of those every-other-year trips has gone up. The 2025 trip, which cost $3,500, was canceled as only five of the 15 students who expressed interest in the opportunity were able to afford it.
That didn’t sit well with Charov.
“So many kids are trapped in the bubble of their own world,” he said. “They can’t explore outside of it even for a little bit. I was very lucky to have done that.”
In September, as part of an extended learning opportunity course, Charov decided his project ought to be a fundraiser for students who can’t afford to go on those trips. After donating $350 of his own money, or 10% of his $3,500 goal, he opened it up to the masses as a GoFundMe campaign.
“I talked to some local businesses. I asked friends and family. I went to school board meetings,” Charov said.
It was those presentations at school board meetings, he said, where the fundraiser seemed to pick up steam.
“He’s presented twice now before the school board and has done a fabulous job,” said school board member Rosemarie De Angelis. “He talked about his own efforts, how this got started and that idea that there are kids who just can’t afford this kind of money.”
Soon, Charov had raised over $2,900. He was within striking distance of the $3,500 goal, but what happened next caught him and all of his supporters by surprise.
“I met with the executor of the estate of this wealthy woman who passed away in Kennebunkport and she wanted to give her money to charity,” Charov said. “The executor said ‘I think is this a very worthy cause.'”
That resulted in a $5,000 donation, bringing the total raised to nearly $8,000. But that wasn’t all.
“They also set up a $20,000 challenge grant to go along with that,” Charov said. “That means they’ll match up to $20,000 in additional donations I receive.”
If Charov is to raise that additional $20,000 and secure the match, he will have raised roughly $48,000. What started as generating funds for one student to study abroad now has the potential to benefit more than a dozen students.
“It’s crazy,” Charov said. “I mean, we’re talking big numbers now. Instead of funding one kid, it’s multiple kids over many years, hopefully.”
De Angelis noted the tremendous impact that could have on South Portland’s increasingly diverse student population for whom English isn’t their first language. Portuguese is one example, she said, of a common first language now found in South Portland schools.
“You might have a lot of students who speak Portuguese who come from a country where their family is seeking asylum,” De Angelis said. “They can’t return but they could go to Portugal or they could go to other countries that speak Portuguese, and they could be great hosts for students but wouldn’t be able to because they can’t afford it. That’s where I think Huck’s idea is so incredible.”
The potential of raising nearly $50,000 has Charov and others thinking bigger — something that could eventually take the form of a study abroad scholarship.
As he prepares to depart from South Portland to study linguistics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver this fall, he hopes his fundraising efforts can have a lasting impact.
“I didn’t expect donations so large, but I’m thankful that it happened,” Charov said. “With everything going on in the world, I hope this can make a positive impact on the community.”
For more information on Charov’s fundraiser or to donate, visit bit.ly/SPstudyabroad.
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