HBCUs, or historically Black colleges and universities, are an important component of Black history in the United States.

Returned Volunteers leverage Peace Corps service to improve communities at home.

The Peace Corps offers a wide variety of service opportunities abroad.

As a tenured professor of 18 years and an associate dean at the highest level of the University of Texas at Austin leadership, I quietly started my application to become a Peace Corps Volunteer late one evening in 2008. I'd just attended a friend’s memorial service, the sixth such service in a two-year time span.

This is the second in a series of Q&As with returned Peace Corps Volunteers who identify as first-generation college students and/or new Americans. Learn how they navigated the challenges of the decision-making process and service abroad.

When I first arrived to my little village in Cambodia, I was convinced that I would spend hours at the health center every day because I am a community health education Volunteer. Little did I know, I would be doing so much more than I could’ve imagined.

Around the globe, Peace Corps Volunteers work with local counterparts to design and implement safe, affordable and sustainable water and sanitation projects.