Profiles of Peace Corps Participants
Amanda Day
Peace Corps, Togo, 2004–05
"SIT challenged my mind in ways that a typical lecture-based education never could have."
Having graduated from college with a degree in anthropology, I wanted to use my knowledge of people and their cultures to bring about change. I saw development work as the answer, and I found the career I was looking for at the SIT Graduate Institute.
What I most admire about SIT—what best prepared me for my career—is its honesty in education. SIT students learn to think critically, to question everything, analyze from all viewpoints, and form opinions. What more could someone working in development ask for?
Through my SIT coursework, I knew that to experience development work in the field with actual results I would have to find a situation that put most of the responsibility for learning on my own shoulders. That’s why I chose the Peace Corps for my practicum.
Without the support of all the returned Peace Corps Volunteers at SIT, I don’t think I could have done it!
Mary Strabala
Peace Corps, Costa Rica, 1991–93
"SIT provides the international environment that Peace Corps Volunteers seek."
I began thinking about going to the SIT Graduate Institute—and teaching as a career—during my Peace Corps service, when I learned that some of the first Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) were trained at SIT and that many former Volunteers have attended SIT.
The Peace Corps still trains its Volunteers through experiential methods developed and used at SIT. Likewise, the language teaching approaches we learned in SIT’s teacher training program were all used in my Peace Corps training.
Other similarities exist as well. PCVs are encouraged to connect strongly with their group. SIT’s teacher training program also promotes a sense of community. SIT coursework included discussions about teaching English, and how it affects other cultures—echoing discussions we’d had in the Peace Corps.
Indeed, the Peace Corps helped define how I treat people from other "cultures." I was able to continue that through a most rewarding SIT internship—teaching in a prison.
Carol Bellamy
Peace Corps, Guatemala, 1963–65
"My time as a Peace Corps Volunteer was the best two years of my life."
In 1963, Carol Bellamy, a recent graduate of Gettysburg College, went to Guatemala as a Peace Corps Volunteer. In 1993, she became the first former PCV to become director of the US Peace Corps. Today, Ms. Bellamy is President and CEO of World Learning and President of its SIT Graduate Institute and SIT Study Abroad programs.
The Peace Corps changed my life. And while Guatemala is a wonderful country, it was really the whole experience of being a PCV that made it so meaningful.
The Peace Corps taught me that you can’t really fail. It showed me that, whatever it is you want to accomplish, you must try. And if it doesn’t go so well, you don’t let that stop you. You move on. You do it in a different way.
That was perhaps the greatest lesson of my life. The Peace Corps told me there’s a big world out there -- take advantage of it.
