A Dispatch from the Peace Corps
Todd joined the Peace Corps after graduating. He explains his motivation: "After growing up in a small town and attending college in the same area, I was looking for adventure. I felt that there would always be time for 'conventional work'." He applied to the Peace Corps as one of his options after graduation, and waited nearly a year for the final approval. The application process was thorough and tiresome, especially the medical part. "At the time, it was a pain. But in retrospect, I think making a long application process makes sense: If you can't survive that, how will you survive in the field? It really tests your dedication."
Todd was placed in a remote village in Paraguay, and spent two years there. He learned Spanish and Guarani (the local Indian language) and, all in all, found the experience to be wonderfully challenging. "It was very, very grassroots. By that I mean there was no roadmap, literally an empty field! If we wanted to do things, we had to do it from scratch, from the ground up. Overall, I was very happy with my experience. I was in a great situation and for the first year at least I was really able to feel like I was having an impact and making a difference."
"I also think I was very satisfied because I had practically no work experience beforehand. The assignment process is rather random, and often we don't know beforehand what skills would be required in a given community. Sometimes, the Peace Corps has a hard time matching skills with situations. So if you don't have any skills, you're fine. But I do know some people who were underutilized and frustrated because they were mismatched, or because the situation they were in did not fit their skill set."
Looking back on his experience, Todd cites the following benefits: "I think the international perspective I gained was really valuable. The language skills are great. We did a lot of fundraising and capital raising for irrigation projects, and I was able to develop skills in some of the managerial areas like fundraising and project management."
One of the best aspects, adds Todd, is the alumni network: "In every city you go to, there is a strong network of alumni. And it's probably unlike any other 'alumni network' -- we didn't just go to the same school and cheer the same sports teams for four years. We have a very strong bond, because we were all in incredibly difficult, challenging situations, and we were all there because we wanted to make a difference. It's incredible to have that group of people so concentrated in one place."
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