{"id":6613,"date":"2015-06-16T19:05:54","date_gmt":"2015-06-16T19:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/?p=6613&post_type=story"},"modified":"2023-11-20T20:56:53","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T20:56:53","slug":"peace-corps-stories","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/peace-corps-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Peace Corps Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summer 2015<\/em><\/p>\n

[lead]When UCF campus Peace Corps recruiter Carlos Rojas, \u201911<\/strong>, tells students about the impact they can make by volunteering with the global service organization, his pitch is simple: \u201cIt\u2019s gold.\u201d[\/lead]<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you know as an undergrad can go a long way in an impoverished country,\u201d he explains. \u201c[Peace Corps volunteers] become the liaisons of information from the outside world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rojas, a former Peace Corps volunteer with a bachelor\u2019s degree in political science, spreads the word about these opportunities in monthly campus meetings and classroom visits. About 35 UCF students are selected for the program annually, a little more than half of the applicants. A simplified application that offers students greater influence over their deployment destinations has increased interest, he says. \u201cWe target classes where the Peace Corps would be relevant to the degree,\u201d Rojas says. \u201cA lot of education majors want to teach abroad, so the Peace Corps fits into that goal. In health care, the Peace Corps allows [students] to apply theories learned in the classroom to the real world. For students who want to go to graduate school, it provides real-life experiences to add to their academic research.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such experiences abound in his and others\u2019 stories within the Knight community.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[slideshow slug=”peace-corps-stories” caption_color=”#050000″][\/slideshow]<\/p>\n

Finding a Home in Cameroon<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For Rojas, the Peace Corps answered his big question about life after college: \u201cWhat did I want to do?\u201d He says, \u201cI wanted to see the world; I wanted to learn new languages; I wanted to help people. In the Peace Corps, I could do all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rojas volunteered in a remote village in the western African nation of Cameroon, where he taught English and Spanish to children and adults.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou travel two hours deep into the desert,\u201d he says. \u201cThen, out of nowhere, this deep, lush village opens up. The culture is almost completely communal, an approach to life I wasn\u2019t accustomed to.\u201d He also helped villagers with farming, health tips and business ideas. In one memorable instance, he introduced a deaf student to sign language. \u201cIt was like giving this man the [winning] lottery ticket,\u201d says Rojas. \u201cHe told me, \u2018Wow, this is my language!\u2019 … It was changing his life.\u201d During his service, Rojas was able to immerse himself in the region\u2019s Fula language and culture and learn to cook, a skill he had generally avoided. \u201cYou go in there as a volunteer, and it feels like you\u2019re there for work or vacation, but at some point, it stops feeling like that,\u201d he says. \u201cIt starts feeling like you\u2019re at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teaching with \u201cThe Simpsons\u201d in Colombia<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Even in a foreign land, there are glimpses of home. While teaching English in Santa Marta, Colombia, Heidi Jo Bartlett, \u201915<\/strong>, discovered that her most valuable instructional tools were familiar pop stars and TV characters from the U.S. \u201cAmerican songs are very popular,\u201d Bartlett says. \u201cAll the fourth- and fifth-grade girls really loved One Direction. I had to look them up. And my host [family] brother would watch \u2018The Simpsons.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Bartlett, who recently earned her master\u2019s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)<\/a> at UCF, used song lyrics as a foundation for grammar lessons. She played scenes from popular American movies and TV shows to illustrate how people interact. \u201cI wanted to make it more real, to show that people actually use [language this way],\u201d says Bartlett. And the Colombian teachers she assisted reacted positively to her innovative methods. \u201cThey were happy that I was able to give them different ideas about what can make class interesting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe culture is different,\u201d says Bartlett, adding that afternoon siestas are routine, and it\u2019s not unusual to cancel classes for bad weather. \u201cYou learned to work around things, so it was a good experience in resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bridging a Cultural Gap in Moldova<\/strong><\/h2>\n

During his time in the eastern European country of Moldova, Johnathon French, \u201907<\/strong>, taught English in middle schools, colleges and retirement homes, an assignment that altered his preconceived notions about Peace Corps service. \u201cYou always have this idea of living in a hut, although that wasn\u2019t my experience at all,\u201d says French, who is currently pursuing a master\u2019s degree in TESOL. \u201cStill, there\u2019s this romantic idea of giving up everything to help other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

French spent three years in a nation that borders Romania, a destination he had longed to explore. \u201cI\u2019ve had a fascination with Romanian culture and language since I was a child,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted some reason to go there, to study there.\u201d His host family drilled him in proper Romanian language, which they used to discuss their cultural differences. French hopes to develop educational programs for nonprofit organizations abroad, a career that will be bolstered by his Peace Corps experience. \u201cI learned to integrate into another culture,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s empathy, really. You\u2019re struggling to survive \u2014 to speak in a foreign language every day. I know what that\u2019s like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Testing Theories on a Chalkboard in Madagascar<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Before graduate student Jeremy Cahill could teach English to high school students in Madagascar, he had to learn 2 dialects of Malagasy, the language of his students. \u201cAside from it being a show of respect, it allows you to form relationships with people and become part of the community yourself,\u201d says Cahill, who is completing his master\u2019s degree in TESOL. He explains, \u201cYou\u2019re not an outsider. You\u2019re living there for two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were so many people who helped me with so many things,\u201d says Cahill, who returned to his graduate classes at UCF with real-life teaching examples that expand on his academic research. \u201cThey helped me with my classes, invited me into their homes. I ended up getting more help than I ever gave.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was chalk and a chalkboard and 70 students,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was a chance to experience what works, what doesn\u2019t work. What are my strengths? What are my weaknesses? Now that I\u2019m studying the theories of learning languages, it has really helped me a lot because I have that experience to draw on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Images courtesy of Heidi Jo Bartlett, \u201915<\/strong>;\u00a0Jeremy Cahill; and Johnathon French, \u201907<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":6722,"template":"","categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6613","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","issues-520","issues-summer-2015"],"yoast_head":"\nUCF Peace Corps Volunteer Stories | Study Abroad<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In Colombia, Madagascar, Cameroon and Moldova, alumni and students improve lives with The Simpsons, cultural exchange and English-language instruction.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/peace-corps-stories\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Peace Corps Stories\" \/>\n<meta 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