Peace Corps attracts students

By SARAH CASSI
Collegian Staff Writer

For students interested in traveling abroad and volunteering their skills, the Peace Corps is a viable option after college.

This year Penn State is 12th out of the top 25 Peace Corps volunteer-producing universities in the nation. Among Big Ten Schools, University of Wisconsin is first with 116 volunteers, the University of Michigan is fifth with 71 volunteers and Indiana University is tied for ninth with 58 volunteers. Currently, 56 volunteers from Penn State are serving in the Peace Corps.

Since 1961, more than 150,000 people have volunteered through the Peace Corps in more than 130 countries. Although it is a volunteer-based service, the Peace Corps is still a job.

Volunteers first fill out applications and are interviewed to determine if they meet various service requirements. Qualified individuals are nominated for service in certain geographic areas.

To better prepare for service, Dominic Preiswerk, Peace Corps recruiter for Penn State and a former volunteer, said Peace Corps volunteers are required to undergo three months of training.

"Five weeks are spent studying language for five hours a day, five weeks are spent training for your job assignment and then volunteers undergo cultural training, where people from the country explain how certain things are done," Preiswerk said.

Preiswerk said originally, he did not consider joining the Peace Corps after graduation but the opportunity to travel while performing service work drew him to the organization. Preiswerk joined the Peace Corps in 1993 and was assigned to Kisarawe, Tanzania, to teach physics.

"Teaching was ... something I had never considered," Preiswerk said. "I didn't do so well in my physics class."

The Peace Corps was established by President John F. Kennedy after he issued a campaign-stop challenge on Oct. 14, 1960, to University of Michigan students to serve their country and the world by volunteering abroad. Brian Dempsey, associate professor of civil engineering, had a unique Peace Corps experience from 1969 to 1971.

"I found out about the Peace Corps from an ad on a wall with peel-off coupons," Dempsey said. "I entered the Peace Corps my junior year, which gave me a lot of time to prepare, and was married a week before my wife and I left for Honduras."

Andy Jacobson (graduate-meteorology) only had a few weeks to get ready before he left to teach high school science in Benin, West Africa. Jacobson suggests prospective volunteers first learn as much as they can about the country in which they wish to serve.

"Speak to a volunteer who has been in the country that you are going to serve because everyone has a different experience," Jacobson said. "I had read a lot about poverty, but to actually experience the level of desperation is really stunning."

Dempsey realized the extreme difference in cultures after he returned to the U.S.

"I would see a $50 trinket on somebody's wall," he said, "and realize that someone in Honduras could eat off of that $50 for a month."