JULIS NAVARRO
Staff Writer
Pepperdine University alumni are participating in the Peace Corps mission at a growing rate. According to a recent Peace Corps press release, Pepperdine has entered the top 25 list for small schools at No. 21, with 16 alumni serving as Peace Corps volunteers. Since the Peace Corps’ inception in 1961, 119 Pepperdine alumni have volunteered.
The volunteers of the Peace Corps devote their time and energy to serving those around the world who are less fortunate.
Peace Corps volunteers commit two years to living and working overseas in specializations that range from education to agriculture. Financial support is offered to all volunteers, including free housing and medical coverage, as well as a $6,000 bonus upon withdrawal. The mission of the Peace Corps is to help people of interested countries in meeting their needs for training men and women and to help Americans and the people they serve gain a better understanding of each other’s cultures.
“That’s an exciting moment to find out we have that much of an interest here,” said James “Chip” Moore, Pepperdine chief human resources officer. Moore, who is also a graduate of Pepperdine University, served in the Peace Corps with his wife in a town called Lahad Datu in Malaysia. The couple joined in 1967 and taught junior secondary school, training students before their entrance test to high school.
Moore said that he and his wife were lucky to keep in contact with one of their students and were able coordinate a 25-year reunion with about 30 of their students.
“You could actually see the difference education made in peoples’ lives,” he said.
For Moore, one of the hardest aspects of their service was having to teach children who did not have enough food to eat. The families of the students had a wide range of incomes, but many families struggled to send their children to school, he explained.
For Troy and Tabitha Snowbarger, joining the Peace Corps was their way of responding to the call for service. The young couple, who graduated from Pepperdine in 2002 and 2003, respectively, went to East Timor in July of 2005. Their primary projects were in community economic development and rural health protection. In a village of 1,500 people, where no one spoke English, they had to learn the native language, Tetun.
Life in the Peace Corps is often more difficult than expected.
“Transportation was always difficult due to the isolation of our community and poor condition of roads. We often shared an 8 hour bus ride with pigs, chickens and goats stuffed into every spare space under our feet, over our heads, and in baskets hanging off of the roof and sides of the bus,” Troy explained.
“By far, the greatest rewards of our Peace Corps experience are the priceless friendships we formed with people in our community,” Troy said. “We also left Timor with a very different perspective and a less ethnocentric worldview.”
After being inspired from the experience, the Snowbargers will be co-directing a humanitarian aid effort in Cambodia, starting in March. They also plan on eventually returning to East Timor.
“Trust that the experience will be worth the time,” Moore said of volunteering for the Peace Corps. “The time, the people will be worth every minute. It will change you dramatically for the better.”
Nick Gallion, a junior international communication studies major, plans on joining the Peace Corps after he graduates from Pepperdine. Gallion hopes to use his studies in Spanish language and his experience in agriculture to serve others. “I don’t want to change the world — I don’t think I can do that,” he said. “But I want my gifts to help someone else.” For Gallion, the Peace Corps is “another route to spread faith through actions, not words.”
Coming from a small town and a close-knit family, Gallion said that he wants to see what other people think about life and God in their day-to-day struggles. He is confident that two years in the Peace Corps will shape him forever.
Another student planning on joining the Peace Corps ranks is junior Jenna Chang. Like many Pepperdine students, Chang is still unsure of the career path she should choose after college. “Instead of graduating and working while deciding what I want to pursue past Pepperdine, I feel as though I would receive better life experience joining the Peace Corps and working in a different country,” Chang said.
David Briery, public affairs representative for Peace Corps, recommends that interested students attend information sessions and browse the Peace Corps website. “The important thing is to talk to people who have already been in the Peace Corps,” Briery said. “Although each experience is unique, it’ll give them a good idea of what it’s like.”
Briery also added, “It’s not for everyone, but for a lot of people, it’s the greatest experience of their life.”
01-25-2007
