Real People: Local English teacher organizes Armenian spelling bees

The following excerpt comes from the Burlington Times News in Burlington, North Carolina, and was originally published on January 16, 2012.

Matt Oakley is a teacher who recently organized an English spelling bee for the second year in a row. Considering English is the second language to all his students, thats a pretty big deal.

Matt, from Burlington, is 19 months into his 27-month commitment to the Peace Corps Armenia, where he works at the National Institute of Education in the city of Kapan. In an email interview, Matt said his job is a little different than the rest of the teacher volunteers, who are usually assigned a specific village instead of a position with several schools.

The Peace Corps is currently working in 67 other countries in addition to Armenia, and has been in 139 countries in the organizations 50-year history, said Matt. More than 780 Peace Corps volunteers have served in Armenia alone, since the program began in the country in 1992, according to a news release. Matt is one of 98 volunteers who are currently working in Armenia, in either community and business development, or English education.

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