Spring Break
Peace Corps offers life-changing opportunities
By: Lauren Lucas
Issue date: 8/6/07 Section: News
Texas A&M French professor Nathan Bracher said his main anxiety about leaving the United States for Tunisia was whether or not he could perform successfully. He also said this was the "challenge that made the Peace Corps so attractive."
Bracher, along with two other Texas A&M professors, joined the Peace Corps before beginnning his teaching career.
The Peace Corps was established by an act of Congress in 1961 to promote world peace by helping foreign countries meet their need for trained workers in areas including education, health, technology and the environment. Peace Corps volunteers serve two years, starting with a 10-week language, cross cultural and technology training.
"Training is also a time when you make really close friends with the host family you are living with," said Lee Fitzgerald, a professor of wildlife science at A&M. "These are really important relationships that usually last for a long time. A lot of people start calling them mother, father, brother, sister."
Fitzgerald said applicants give the Peace Corps a broad field of study they want to pursue. "You tell them which jobs you would like to have, but that's no guarantee," he said. "They say this is the job we have for you, you can take it or keep waiting."
"El Salvador wasn't my first choice," Fitzgerald said about the first country he served in as a Peace Corps volunteer. "I was
mostly concerned that I wasn't going to like the country - the physical and cultural aspect of it."
Fitzgerald spent one year in El Salvador, from February 1979 to 1980. In 1980 he had to evacuate because of the Salvadorian Civil War.
"I was real sad about that, I didn't want to go, I had a lot of friends there," he said. "But it probably was a good decision to evacuate."
Fitzgerald said his job consisted of working with park rangers and studying iguanas.
"There were a lot of surprises in El Salvador," he said. "I learned what is really important in life, living in an area that was extremely poor. I really realized what most of the world is living like but how strong their families are."
Bracher, along with two other Texas A&M professors, joined the Peace Corps before beginnning his teaching career.
The Peace Corps was established by an act of Congress in 1961 to promote world peace by helping foreign countries meet their need for trained workers in areas including education, health, technology and the environment. Peace Corps volunteers serve two years, starting with a 10-week language, cross cultural and technology training.
"Training is also a time when you make really close friends with the host family you are living with," said Lee Fitzgerald, a professor of wildlife science at A&M. "These are really important relationships that usually last for a long time. A lot of people start calling them mother, father, brother, sister."
Fitzgerald said applicants give the Peace Corps a broad field of study they want to pursue. "You tell them which jobs you would like to have, but that's no guarantee," he said. "They say this is the job we have for you, you can take it or keep waiting."
"El Salvador wasn't my first choice," Fitzgerald said about the first country he served in as a Peace Corps volunteer. "I was
mostly concerned that I wasn't going to like the country - the physical and cultural aspect of it."
Fitzgerald spent one year in El Salvador, from February 1979 to 1980. In 1980 he had to evacuate because of the Salvadorian Civil War.
"I was real sad about that, I didn't want to go, I had a lot of friends there," he said. "But it probably was a good decision to evacuate."
Fitzgerald said his job consisted of working with park rangers and studying iguanas.
"There were a lot of surprises in El Salvador," he said. "I learned what is really important in life, living in an area that was extremely poor. I really realized what most of the world is living like but how strong their families are."
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