By Members of Cal State Long Beach’s graduating class will be joining the Peace Corps this summer to volunteer in some of the world’s most impoverished areas of the world.
The university won a grant funded by the U.S. State Department, allowing the campus to have its first official on-campus Peace Corps recruiter in April last year.
Since winning this grant, the university has become the top 80th college for large public schools recruiting for the Peace Corps. There are currently 20 graduates serving.
“Peace Corps not only is a challenging personal journey that you go on, but you also learn in depth what another country is like beyond the media and our newspapers,” said Jessica Wilson, official Peace Corps recruiter at Cal State Long Beach. “You have that opportunity to be the first American they’ll ever meet and you have opportunity to form what they think about America.
Wilson was also a volunteer with the Peace Corps and served in China from 2013 to 2015. She has since worked as an official recruiter with the Peace Corps and has been on campus since November.
“It’s changed who I am as a person,” Wilson said. “I think being able to share that with other students and being able to challenge their perceptions of the world is crucially and critically important.”
Wilson has helped coach graduating students on their interview processes and has given them the tools to equip them for any challenges they may face while they are abroad.
“The process is unlike anything I have ever applied for,” said Pooja-Accamma Somaiah, senior electrical engineering major. “I spent two months preparing my application, resume and personal statement before submitting it on the day of the deadline.”
Following the process of perfecting their paperwork, applicants then conduct an extensive hour-long Skype session with Peace Corps recruiters to determine whether or not they will be a good fit for the program.
“The program is extremely competitive,” Somaiah said. “You have people from all over the U.S. [with] ages ranging from recent high school graduates to university graduates to retirees… all [of whom] have a strong passion for service [with] past experiences to back them up.”
Somaiah was accepted into the program and will be travelling to Ghana later this year to teach math to secondary students.
“To be a Peace Corps volunteer, you have to be a changemaker willing to work with a community whose culture could be completely different from your own,” Somaiah said. “It brings about a challenge to the person who is volunteering…to adapt in an unfamiliar atmosphere, but at the same time help better improve the lives of individuals.”
Along with Somaiah, Wilson has helped several graduating students take the leap to travel and work with the Peace Corps. Last spring, Lauren Quackenbush, senior anthropology major, was sitting in class while a separate Peace Corps recruiter came to invite any interested students to speak with him about the program.
“I had such little interest at the time [that] I didn’t even keep his flyer,” Quackenbush said. “However, that summer I did a lot of thinking…[and] the privilege I have had of being able to go to school and learn should be used to benefit others in the world, rather than [for] personal gain and profit.”
Although Quackenbush’s first go-round applying for the agricultural position in Malawi was unsuccessful, she was later interviewed by a recruiter in Senegal and was accepted into the program the next day.
Quackenbush will be travelling to Senegal this September as a Sustainable Agriculture Volunteer, providing the local people with information and materials to improve the quality and quantity of their food.
“The opportunity to work in the Peace Corps will not be easy, but the experience will be more than rewarding,” Quackenbush said. “This will be a challenge to everything I’ve learned in school as well as [being able to] gain a lot of experience in a way I may never get anywhere else.”
Allen Gonzales-Willert, a senior communications major, is also joining the Peace Corps this summer and will be teaching English in Ukraine.
“It might sound cliche, but I am genuinely looking forward to helping people that grew up without a lot of things that I take for granted,” Gonzales-Willert said. “I wanted to join the Peace Corps because I wanted to find a way to serve my country.”
Wilson is continuously performing outreach to the community to encourage students to step outside of their comfort zones and to take part in giving back to those in need.
“I challenge students to utilize the opportunity because it’s life-changing,” Wilson said. “Why not do it now?”
