Peace Corps - UNH
March 24th, 2005 by Sarin
From The New Hampshire
The New Hampshire - NewsRelated Posts Share this post:
Issue: 3/22/05UNH students fill the Peace Corp ranks
By Cara SpilsburyMany students feel that graduation usually signifies the end. Some believe it to be the initiation into a new world full of bills and paperwork, adulthood and responsibility. But some choose to delay that future and this option has been gaining popularity in the Granite State and at the University of New Hampshire. Last year, 25 UNH alumni joined the Peace Corps, donating 27 months of their lives to help people across the globe.
The organization, which since 1961 has sent 170,000 Americans to 137 countries, recently announced that the 25 alumni that volunteered in 2004 put UNH 22nd on the list of national medium-sized colleges providing volunteers, a jump of two spots from 2003. Since its inception, 576 UNH alumni have served selflessly around the world.
Last week marked the 44th anniversary of the Peace Corps, which was celebrated across the country in the form of Peace Corps Week. The annual event, which started as Peace Corps Day, seeks to recruit more volunteers and raise awareness about their worthwhile cause.
Since returning from her volunteer stint in 1996, Susanne Delaney has made it her mission to recruit others to take on the experience that enticed her a decade ago. Delaney graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1993 with a degree in Economics/International Affairs and Spanish. A year later, she was delivering a baby in a small rural health post without electricity and in extreme Paraguay heat and humidity.
“Would I ever have had this opportunity here in the United States? Probably not,” Delaney reflected. “As a Peace Corps volunteer, I learned so much about myself and learned that I was stronger, more confident and creative than I had ever imagined.”
Through the work of John F. Kennedy, the Peace Corps took shape in order to key in on the socially conscious youth generation that was craving to make a difference in the world without joining the army. He uttered one of his most famous speeches in 1960 to gain support for the program. “Ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country.” Those words still echo as motivation for Peace Corps volunteers, nearly 45 years later.
The Peace Corps and college graduates often form a partnership because of the needs they meet for each other. The Peace Corps seeks motivated, willing volunteers who are able to pick up and leave the comforts of home for more than two years at a time. Many feel the experiences in the Peace Corps are unusual and trying, but most returned volunteers agree that they were rewarding.
“I felt I had led a very privileged life,” Delaney said. “Having grown up in a nice neighborhood, in a nice home, being educated and never going without, I wanted the opportunity to give back.”
For recent college graduates, according to Delaney, the Peace Corps provides an opportunity to experience an exotic corner of the earth while delaying the monotony and stress of average American adulthood, as well as technical, language and cultural training, living stipend, complete medical and dental health care coverage, housing arrangements, four weeks vacation and a $6,075 readjustment allowance upon completion of service.
These benefits caught the eye of junior Dana Pristi. “I’ve heard it’s a good way to build experience in an international setting and that it’s a good cause in general,” Pritsi said.
Lindsey Bachler, a junior, has also been hearing the faint call of duty from the Peace Corps in recent months. “It’s an option for after graduation because I don’t really know what I want to do with my life,” she explained. “If I ended up going into the Peace Corps, it would be a great opportunity that I probably won’t be able to get again. Plus, I wouldn’t just be sitting around thinking about what to do with my life. I would be serving a purpose.”
Delaney felt the same way at the end of her college career in Durham. “My senior year at UNH, I remember trying to figure out what I wanted to do after graduation,” she recalled. “Peace Corps just seemed so attractive! It provided me an opportunity to learn a new language, immerse myself in a completely new culture and do my part to improve the quality of life for a community thousands of miles away.”
Some college students, however, don’t see the appeal of such an adventure. Sean Bourbeau, a sophomore, said he couldn’t see himself joining the Peace Corps.
“I do have sympathy for these people in need, but I realize that it is not sufficient in justifying the sacrifice of 27 months of my life for the benefit of others,” Bourbeau explained. “I have trouble finding a true genuine beneficence to help these people apart from my sympathy towards them. So I guess I acknowledge my own selfishness and in that I would be doing the people that I would be helping out of sympathy, if I ever did join, a disservice on the moral level in that my motives for doing so are misdirected.”
The Peace Corps will hold a general information meeting at the Memorial Union Building on March 23 with hopes of speaking to interested students and those seeking more answers. The representative will speak in room 321 from 7 to 9 p.m.
For more information, visit the Peace Corps Web site at www.peacecorps.gov or e-mail Susanne Delaney at sdelaney@peacecorps.gov or call 617-565-5548.
Nice. And hey, someone I know from Portland wrote it
I really wish she closed the article a little better. The opposing opinions was not the best way to close this article. Also, it would have been nice if they got a hold of me or other applicants just to fully ’round’ out the opinions.
Take care.
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