Volunteer Stories

Peace Corps Response Volunteers are providing much needed targeted assistance in a breadth of assignment areas, from HIV/AIDS activities, humanitarian assistance, post-conflict reconstruction projects as well as addressing critical needs in the areas of education and technology. Read their stories below for a firsthand account of their Peace Corps Response experience.

• Peace Corps Response Brings it Full Circle

  By DENIS VIRI, Peace Corps Response Mexico

  I first joined Peace Corps after graduating from college in 1969, having been totally intrigued with the notion of international service ever since President Kennedy proposed it in 1961. in college I had aspired to have a mainstream teaching career, Peace Corps proved to be a catalyst and bonding experience that altered my direction and future goals and to which I would ultimately return full circle. More

• Success Doesn’t Happen Overnight

  By BRIAN WOODS, Peace Corps Response Georgia

  

  How does one define success? This was often a topic among Volunteers during my initial service as a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Volunteer in Ukraine. Like many of my peers, I dreamed of instant results, but I was pragmatic enough to know that I was playing the “long game.” More

• Lending a Helping Hand

  By AMANDA OWENS, Peace Corps Response Antigua

  

  The difference between my first assignment in Peace Corps and my second with Peace Corps Response is like night and day. Living and working in Mauritania, Africa is vastly different from working in the Caribbean. For one thing, the needs and demands of the community were not the same. Similarly, I felt that the challenges faced in Mauritania made my work in Antigua seem like a walk in the park. More

• Inclusion Takes Many Forms

  By LORIEN ANDERSON, Peace Corps Response Georgia

  

  I have had the pleasure of serving as an Urban Youth Volunteer in Paraguay, and as a School Social Worker in the Deaf Schools of The Republic of Georgia through Peace Corps Response. Knowing that so many children with disabilities go uneducated in Paraguay, I was intrigued to see what government funded boarding schools for children who are often left undereducated would look like. More

• The Social Perspective: Peer Counseling in Demand

  By DAVID O’NEILL, Peace Corps Response South Africa

  

  The AIDS epidemic struck dramatically in many places around the world in the 1980s. Initially, it was thought of as a sub-cultural gay cancer or exotic African disease; it did not get the mainstream institutional attention it warranted until people who learned about it first-hand stepped up to use their knowledge to help form a productive direction for governments, medical institutions, social organizations and individuals. More

• Up the Chagres River

  By KYRA STENSLIE, Peace Corps Response Panama

  

  During my Peace Corps Response service in Panama, I was warmly accepted and treated as a valuable member of my host community, just as I had been as a two-year volunteer in Paraguay. My experience serving in Paraguay was life-changing and certainly worth repeating. The fond memories and life lessons I learned from that original experience are what inspired me to apply to Peace Corps Response. I was excited to once again have the opportunity to utilize my teaching skills and share my enthusiasm for learning in a new and distinct part of the world. More

Volunteer Stories Archives

Last updated Apr 29 2013