Peace Corps’ Virtual Service provides U.S. citizens with the unique opportunity to donate their professional skills and remotely support counterparts abroad. Early pilot participants were returned Peace Corps Volunteers, five of whom were also AmeriCorps alumni. These dedicated individuals share why there’s no set or linear path when it comes to serving communities.
When I was asked to write about my youth in development sector work in Thailand, I wondered if I should write about a single event, a single day or the overall experience.
Though they represent less than 5% of the overall Volunteer population, Americans over the age of 50 are a valuable asset to the Peace Corps community.
Upon arriving to my school, the first thing I asked for
was a classroom or anything that could potentially be used as one. More than
anything, I knew that I had to have a designated space to teach in, that I
could call my own. I did not want to have to trudge all my belongings from one
class to the next, and I desperately wanted a space that my students and I felt
belonged to us, specifically, to learn in.
“Can you describe to me what your social life is like at site?” I eagerly asked a fellow Peace Corps Thailand Volunteer at our joint swearing in/close of service ceremony.
May is Asian American and Pacific Island Heritage Month, or so people tell me, but I never knew that we had our own special month because I've always identified as just a regular American.
