By Elizabeth Tertadian
After graduation, many students know what they're going to do, or at least what they'd like to do. Typically, students pursue a career in their chosen field of study. Some get bitten by the travel bug. Others answer the call to service.
At UP, the Peace Corps has been a popular draw for students interested in service. Nine 2009 UP graduates joined last spring, and are currently in training and beginning their service. The previous year, five UP alumni signed up for the Peace Corps.
Four of the 2008 graduates are working in Peru: Colleen Brunell, Melissa Barber, Patrick Orr and Emily Bradvica. The fifth, Leah Sonnenberg, is serving in Burkina Faso, Africa.
For Bradvica, the call to serve started in high school when her history teacher spoke about her experience in Africa with the Peace Corps.
"I remember feeling really excited by that idea," she said. "Learning a new language, experiencing a new way of living. And that feeling stuck with me all through my time at UP."
Volunteering continued to be a part of Bradvica's life at UP. She participated in the Border Plunge in Mexico. Later, she studied abroad in Spain for a spring semester.
"At UP, I was inspired by these experiences, plus by Spanish professor Warshawsky, who was a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa, and the idea was always in the back of my head," Bradvica said.
After graduating, Bradvica found herself applying for the Peace Corps. By April, she had accumulated enough experience working with children and become part of a team going to Peru. Her team was sworn in at the end of August, and she began her assignment after three months of training in Lima. She and Brunell are a part of the youth development program, alongside Barber, who is in the health program and Orr, who is working on a water and sanitation project.
"I was never definitely planning on doing exactly the Peace Corps until a few months after I graduated, although I knew the whole time that I was going to do some sort of volunteer work where I got to live in a different country for an extended period of time... preferably using my Español," Bradvica said.
The team is in Shilla, a small town of about 1,500 traditional Spanish-speaking Peruvians in the region of Ancash in northern Peru.
"We just started this week and I'm planning on incorporating charlas (classes) about geography and culture," Bradvica said. "Most of the people in my town haven't ever looked at a map so it's a fun eye-opening project."
The team lives with host families, and Bradvica enjoys playing cards, going to fiestas and eating her new favorite food, guinea pig.
UP alumni Leah Sonnenberg has already spent a year in Burkina Fago, Africa with the Peace Corps. Her decision to serve in Africa started in high school. It was a conversation about what individuals can do to make a significant difference in Africa that led Sonnenberg to consider the Peace Corps.
"From then on, I had that goal to get here," she said.
After a long, drawn-out application process that began the summer before her senior year, Sonnenberg departed one month after her graduation from UP to Burkina Faso.
At UP, she majored in life science, taught biology workshops and was a residence assistant.
"Who knew months later I would be walking into BC Auditorium-sized class of teenagers as an expert on rocks and plate tectonics?" Sonnenberg said.
In Africa, Sonnenberg teaches classes to middle school and high school students. Last year, she taught geology, microbiology and English. This year, she is teaching English, P.E and training high school students in how to use computers. She also trains new teachers in the Peace Corps, does door-to-door polio vaccinations and integrates topics of women's inequality and HIV into her classes.
In the Peace Corps, Sonnenberg is learning what it means to live another life. She resides in a house with a tin roof, dries her clothes out on a line, cooks over a gas stove and rides her bike to work.
"You become very aware of seasons here, as it determines what you eat for lunch, something we can become disconnected from when we walk into a supermarket of processed goods and mist spraying the carrots every half hour," she said.
Her goals while overseas are to continue to get to know people, learn to speak Jula and French and to keep her friendships from Portland strong.
"I, as one person, will not change Africa," said Sonnenberg. "It is individual friendships that will change the future."
On Oct. 16, Peace Corps volunteer and Northwest Regional Recruiter Lisa White will come to UP to speak about her time in West Africa. She will present at noon in BC 163, explain what the Peace Corps entails and how to apply. Representatives from the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos will also be on campus speaking about their programs.
Peace Corps volunteers spend 27 months in their assigned countries and do various types of work, classified into four major areas: education, health, water and sanitation, and environment. Three months before their return home, team members begin a debriefing process meant to help them readjust to American life. Volunteers are given a readjustment allowance of $6,000 to help with job and living expenses upon their return home. The Peace Corps also provides support to help returning volunteers get jobs and seminars that a give volunteers a chance to share their experiences with other returnees.
"You're part of this network, and you serve for almost two years with Americans from all over the country and form a community," said Melanie Forthun, Peace Corps Public Affairs specialist. "When you get back, you have that network."
To date, 166 UP alumni have served in the Peace Corps in countries around the world. As the Peace Corps comes upon its 50th anniversary, recruiters are excited to see more and more people join.
"This generation is part of a culture of service," said Forthun. "UP students are a big part of that."
Those students will tell you they get as much as they give.
"That first night in Burkina Faso I told myself as long as I could laugh every day I am here, I will be fine," said Sonnenberg. "Over a year in, and I'm still laughing."
