Esprit de Corps
Since 1961 Willamette alumni have put our motto, “Not unto ourselves alone are we born,” into Peace Corps service in record numbers.
In fact Peace Corps officials came to campus in 2004 to present the University with a certificate of appreciation “in grateful recognition of the enduring partnership between the University and Peace Corps,” and stating, “The graduates of Willamette University have been an integral part of Peace Corps’ success overseas and its legacy here at home.”
The Peace Corps traces its roots and mission back to 1960, when then-Senator John F. Kennedy challenged students at the University of Michigan to serve their country in the cause of peace and friendship by living and working in developing countries. Since the agency’s official inception in 1961, nearly 250 Willamette alumni have served in the Peace Corps, working in education, youth outreach, community development, the environment and information technology. Willamette ranks 13th nationally in Peace Corps participation among comparably sized colleges. Currently more than 20 Willamette alumni are serving overseas in many of the 71 countries where the Peace Corps now operates.
Megan Beckett, a 1984 psychology graduate, is now a demographer with RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, Calif., but from 1988–90 she worked in Ecuador with the Peace Corps helping poor families learn to prepare nutritional foods. “I was the local Julia Child of soy beans,” she jokes. “I did cooking demonstrations, a radio show and a cookbook. It was fun and had a positive impact.”
Nikki Hunter ’02 recently returned from two years in Opuwo, Namibia, where she taught English and HIV/sexual health classes with the Peace Corps. For this communications/history major who’s always had a fascination with Africa, the experience was a dream come true in spite of the nightmarish conditions of poverty, widespread AIDS and the aftermath of apartheid she found. “The living conditions for the children are terrible,” Hunter says. “One hug can make their entire week.” (Read more about Hunter’s Peace Corps adventure in the Statesman Journal online: http://159.54.226.83/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051101/NEWS/511010321/1001.)
Senator John F. Kennedy launched what would become the Peace Corps when he challenged college students to spend two years of their lives serving their country in the cause of peace.
Willamette’s emphasis on service is a major factor for many alumni who decide to spend two years doing what the Peace Corps calls “the toughest job you’ll ever love.” Dave Berry ’89, a mathematics and computer science major, says, “I wanted to experience a different culture at a very basic level while helping local people. Willamette really affirmed my desire to join the Peace Corps.”
Berry put his degree to good use teaching high school math in Opuwo, Namibia, from 1995–97. The experience changed his life. “It gave me insight into how the rest of the world lives and an understanding and sympathy for events outside the U.S. Until you’ve lived in a place where you’re the minority, it’s hard to appreciate the challenges of being so different and so examined. It greatly increased my comfort level with situations where I’m the odd man out.”
Chemistry major Amy Flindt ’97 says the University taught her perseverance, which was invaluable during her Peace Corps assignment in Tanzania from 1997–99. “My education gave me strategies for solving problems and dealing with situations I didn’t immediately know how to deal with. It also gave me the confidence I needed.”
Flindt’s confidence was put to the test teaching classes of 50 or more students with no books, no overheads and no copy machines. “We had a chalkboard, but no chalk,” she says. “It would have been easy to give up, but I had successfully passed many courses at Willamette that I thought were impossible, and I’d developed good problem-solving strategies. I just kept going.” And going. Flindt has made a commitment to service and is now in her third year of teaching high school chemistry and environmental science at the American International School in Cairo, Egypt.
Jerome Kim ’03, an economics and Spanish major, is finishing up his 27-month Peace Corps assignment in the Dominican Republic. He says his liberal arts education at Willamette was the perfect training for the Peace Corps. “Willamette allows students to find their own interests, challenge themselves and learn how to think,” he says. “No specialization in one area of study can substitute for one’s ability to think critically.”
“No lecture can explain why a 3-year-old with a cleft palate and worms is starving. No theory can explain why a father is unable to provide food for his family. You can’t reduce life to a simple equation or theory.” — Jerome Kim
Clockwise from top: Residents of the village of Opuwo, Namibia, where Dave Berry ’89 taught math for two years; teaching in Tanzania was just the beginning for Amy Flindt ’97 (left); after more than two years in the Dominican Republic; Jerome Kim ’03 (fourth from left) will continue development work as a Rotary International Scholar.
Kim says his Peace Corps experience has given him “invaluable wisdom beyond textbooks and lectures. No lecture can explain why a 3-year-old with a cleft palate and worms is starving. No theory can explain why a father is unable to provide food for his family. You can’t reduce life to a simple equation or theory.”
During his two years in the tiny island nation, Kim worked on a variety of projects, but one of his proudest achievements is the formation of the Bread Workers Association, which sells garlic crackers. “The annual income for a Dominican family of four is $3,000 to $4,000 so a new business, like selling garlic crackers, could be huge for them,” he explains. “I spent much of my time educating workers on how to manage a business. I taught them accounting, marketing, client service and teamwork.”
For many Willamette alumni like Flindt and Kim, the Peace Corps experience and the University’s dedication to service become a permanent way of life. That’s how it is for Todd Sloan ’81, who triple majored in political science, Latin American studies and Spanish. “I traveled with a WU program to Costa Rica in my sophomore year,” Sloan recalls. “It was a life-changing experience for me. I was struck by the poverty, but just as important, by the incredibly resilient and friendly people we met.”
That experience led Sloan to serve as a Peace Corp volunteer in Guatemala for two years, then pursue a career in international aid. In 2004 he returned to the Peace Corps as country director for Nicaragua, where he oversees training, programming, administration, health care, safety and logistical support for more than 150 volunteers. “Less than a month after graduation, I landed in Guatemala and began my Peace Corps service,” Sloan says. “Little did I know that 24 years later, I would still be working in Latin America in development work.”
It was more than 40 years ago on a college campus that a bold new experiment in public service was launched by a young presidential candidate. It was more than 160 years ago that a bold new college based on public service was launched by a visionary young missionary. Their philosophies are one in the same. “I’ve learned that service to others is incredible,” says Kim, who will be serving next year in Mexico or Chile as a Rotary International Scholar. “Regardless of its form — from the Peace Corps to serving at soup kitchens — service is what makes the world function.”