I first thought about being a Peace Corps Volunteer when a close college friend and coworker, Venera was describing to me her experience interacting with Peace Corps. At that time we were discussing options for how to go about understanding challenges a cross-cultural rural community faces. Venera was raised in Kazakhstan and her English speaking abilities was a product of the Peace Corps education program. Her Peace Corps Education Volunteer, Brian, developed an after-school library program where locals could participate in a book club. Between the formal classes and the after-school program, her English progressed to where she could communicate in English and she attended college in the United States to become an engineer. Right in front of me was the legacy of a Peace Corps Volunteer and at that point, I truly understood what Pea
...ce Corps vision was - a commitment to providing sustainable development at a grassroots level. After extensive research, I knew if I wanted to leverage my engineering background and make a lasting positive impact, Peace Corps would be the best fit for purpose organization.
From talking to and reading blog posts by RPCVs and volunteers from different organizations, I understand there will be challenges and frustrations during Peace Corps service and also how it is important to be flexible and to focus on what you can do as oppose to focusing on events that are out of your control. I have learned these challenges vary from lack of resources to living without electricity to missing families. My long-time girlfriend’s sister Dr. Theresa, volunteered for a hospital in Laos and she described to me how the lack of resources can be ver
frustrating at times. Her advice was to have the ability to adapt by focusing on what you can do and not wasting too much energy on the negatives. I plan to take her advice to tackle the limited resource issues by drawing on my experiences of teaching physics. It has taught me the value of simple classroom interactions such as throwing a ball of paper to a student to demonstrate projectile motion can be just as effective as handing out textbooks and elaborate worksheets. Although my lifestyle in the United States has always involved electricity whether using a TV to watch Netflix or air-conditioning, I realize that living without electricity can be shocking at first. As I adapt to this, I believe this would allow me to not be distracted and focus on the Peace Corps mission statements 2 and 3, where I’m looking forward to forging relationships with the community through sports and socializing.
Ultimately, despite the known and unknown difficulties, I still decided to apply because I firmly believe to make a lasting difference and to truly understand some of the challenges these communities face, I need to work side by side with these communities and experience them. Peace Corps offers the most effective way to do so by emphasizing skilled volunteering and cultural immersion.
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