Julia R.

“It was difficult leaving Indonesia so quickly in 2020. VSP gave me a bit more time to spend with the people and island I care so much about.”

1. What got you interested in the Peace Corps, specifically the VSP program?

When I was in middle school, I met a Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Cambodia. Her experience was everything I wanted to do—adventure, helping others, and learning about new cultures while being a part of grassroots change. I worked hard, applied for the program, and was selected to be a Volunteer in Indonesia. Unfortunately, my time there was cut short when I was evacuated due to COVID. The Virtual Service Pilot (VSP) allowed me to reconnect with the Indonesian island where I used to live and to complete more of the tasks I had hoped to work on before I was evacuated.

2. What projects did you work on?

Together with teachers, we worked on creating a project-based learning curriculum that allowed the students at a vocational high school to learn English terms and create meaningful projects aimed to help them learn applicable English for their different vocational tracks. The vocational high school trains its students in hotel management, fashion design, cooking, and technology. We created English-learning activities, scripts, worksheets, and more to align with the things students were learning in other classes.

As a VSP Participant, Julia continued to collaborate with partners at a vocational school in Indonesia. — As a VSP Participant, Julia continued the educational collaboration she began as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Indonesia.

3. What was a highlight of your VSP experience?

The highlight of my Virtual Service experience was being able to reconnect with my old friends in Kupang and to accomplish more of the projects that I had hoped to do while I was there. It was nice to feel like I was able to truly complete my 27 months of service.

4. What strategies did you use to meet the challenges of a short-term, remote experience?

One challenge I faced was timing. I helped during my summer vacation, which was also summer vacation for the school. I didn’t get to see their work implemented or the projects used while we were planning out the curriculum. Also, I got married and hiked the Camino in Spain during the time I was doing VSP. It took strategic planning and time management to dedicate time each day to work on our projects. I even worked on the project in my wedding dress!

5. What benefits did you gain from your participation?

The biggest benefit I gained from my participation was closure for my in-person service. It was difficult leaving Indonesia so quickly in 2020. VSP gave me a bit more time to spend with the people and island I care so much about.

Julia Riley collaborated with a vocational school in Indonesia. — Project-based learning was the focus of Julia's work with a vocational school in Indonesia.

6. How did your previous Peace Corps and/or professional experience influence your VSP experience?

I’m a passionate proponent of project-based learning as a vehicle of creating positive classrooms and real-life learning. As a science teacher I used this methodology a lot in my classroom. For instance, I worked with my students to research malaria prevention and create projects that would help promote malaria prophylactic campaigns when learning about parasitic diseases. Together, we created water treatment plants in the classroom, held stream watches, etc. I really enjoy the creativity of coming up with different projects that allow students to solve real life problems using knowledge from their lessons. This passion influenced the lessons I created with my collaborator in Indonesia. I was also able to collect a lot of tourist packets and menus from England and the U.S. to send to the vocational school for use in their classrooms.