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Served in: Lessos, Kenya

Years of service: 1983 - 1985

Group number: Education Sector

Project: Secondary School Teacher. I taught Form 1-IV (grades 9-12) math in a rural secondary School. We lived in the western highlands of Kenya at almost 10,000 feet. I was the Home Science club sponsor where we learned to bake cakes, make doughnuts and do crafts projects. I also taught biology and English when it was necessary. It was the most worthwhile experience I have ever had. I have done some interesting things since, but nothing has compared to my time in the Peace Corps.

Affiliation with UAF: Staff/faculty member in the Atmospheric Sciences department.

Blog: Karibuni Peace Corps Kenya

Served in: Harare, Zimbabwe

Years of service: 2001

Project: I was in the Peace Corps in Zimbabwe in 2001 when they permanently evacuated the volunteers, and the Peace Corps has not returned. I served 9 months working in HIV/AIDS for Island Hospice in Harare, doing various jobs including the annual report (since I was a graphic designer), a photo website with photos I took of the patients and the hospital staff, and various office/computer work.

My association with UAF is that I took various courses there at night while I was working at Ft. Wainwright as a graphic designer -- the courses ranged from Dreamweaver to Flash to Yoga. I am in the Foreign Service now in Haiti, but I bought a house in Fairbanks and will come back to retire.

Affiliation with UAF: A student at UAF during 2002 - 2005.

Served in: Cebu, Philippines

Years of service: 2001 - 2003

Project: Environmental education - I worked for Cebu Uniting for Sustainable Water, primarily helping develop a program to give water- and soil-conservation-orientated curriculum materials to teachers in the moutain schools.

Affiliation with UAF:  Staff member in University Relations, ARSC, and currently, Marketing and Communications.

Served in: Palacaguina, Nicaragua

Years of service: 2009 - 2011

Group number: Nicaragua Health 49. I work as a community health educator using non-formal education techniques to reach men, women, and youth groups focusing on maternal and child mortality, HIV/AIDS and STDs, and adolescent pregnancies.

Affiliation with UAF: UAF Alumnus, graduated in May 2008 with bachelor's, double major in Spanish and communication

Blog: Peripatetic Penny (or The Penny Post)

Served in: San Juan de La Maguana, Dominican Republic and La Montañona, El Salvador

Years of service: Dominican Republic 1962 - 1964, El Salvador 1996 - 1998

Project: My major task in both countries was as a forestry advisor and instructor. In the Dominican Republic I taught at a forestry technician training camp for about 9 months. In El Salvador I spent most of my time teaching members of the community of La Montañona how to apply forest management techniques to about 800 acres of pine/oak forest.

Affiliation with UAF: Alumnus '79; faculty in Cooperative Extension 1975 - 1996; Associate Professor of Forestry Extension, Emeritus

Served in: Peña Blanca de Las Tablas, Panama

Years of service: 1965 - 1967

Group number: Panama 9

Project: Rural Community Development. Assisted with USAID self-help school construction, University of Panama goiter study, cooperative development.

Affiliation with UAF: Presently attending UAF for teacher recertification credits, foreign language department, Osher Lifelong Learning

Served in: Panskura, West Bengal, India

Years of service: 1966 - 1968

Project: Village-level rice farming, working with local farmers and the BDO (Block Development Office) using a package of agricultural practices. Also worked on temporary assignment in Nawada district of Bihar, south of Patna, on an emergency water-drilling program putting hand-pump wells at schools after a two-year drought.

Affiliation with UAF: Student off and on since 1971

Served in: Debre Zeit, Ethiopia

Years of service: 1967 - 1969

Project: I taught general science and biology to 7th graders and to 12th graders in a high school in Debre Zeit. I also spent one year teaching microbiology to veterinary animal assistants in an FAO school near Debre Zeit.

Affiliation with UAF: Student 2006-2010 in cross-cultural studies and faculty member.

Served in: Gorna Oryahovitsa, Bulgaria

Years of service: 1993 - 1995

Group number: Group 3

Project: Small business advisor.  Established a business center, with an English language library.  As a special project, taught economics through Junior Achievment in an after-school class at the Science and Mathmatics High School. Retired and traveling.

Affiliation with UAF: Student, Life Long Learning Program, and a Docent at the Museum of the North

Served in: Aranuka, Kiribati

Years of service: 1994-1997

Project: Teaching English as a Foreign Language Teacher Trainer

Affiliation with UAF: Former UAF student

Served in: Bafra, Turkey

Years of service: 1966 - 1968

Group number: Turkey 13, teacher of English as a foreign language

Affiliation with UAF: Professor Emeritus of Linguistics

Served in: Tiquina, Bolivia

Years of service: 1966 - 1968

Project: Community Development (introduction of new potato, sheep and chicken varieties) and Public Health.

Affiliation with UAF: Alumnus '65, '72

Served in: San Francisco Menéndez, Ahuachapán, El Salvador

Years of service: 2006 - 2008

Project: Collaborated with a Salvadoran NGO and local nature guides in developing and promoting ecotourism development in El Imposible National Park. Worked with community members in the creation, management, and promotion of 3 small businesses. Developed educational programs for youth focused on dental hygiene, sex-ed, gender equality, literacy, and environmental stewardship. Started a recycling and trash clean-up campaign with park guards and guides, as well as with youth from the community.

Affiliation with UAF: Alumna '09; M.S., Natural Resources Management, Peace Corps Master's International

Served in: Bomadi via Warri, Nigeria

Years of service: 1960 - 1964

Project: Teaching in secondary school

Affiliation with UAF: Alum and professor emeritus

Served in: Latvia

Years of service: 1997 - 1999

Project: Urban planner providing assistance to local governments after the fall of the USSR.

Affiliation with UAF: Friend

Served in: Nuku'alofa, Tonga

Years of service: 1973 - 1975

Project: I was recruited as a Peace Corps special placement to teach home economics at Nuku'alofa High School. The home economics building was in the process of being completed so I was responsible for finding or buying all the equipment and setting up the curriculum. I taught first through sixth form girls and a few boys, which was a challenge and a delight. My love of working with indigenous foods and the cultural context of those foods was born during my Peace Corps service.

As many people say, Peace Corps service changed my life. My service in Tonga gave me the experience, confidence and direction needed to apply for a Cooperative Extension position as the Home Economics and 4-H agent in Nome, for the Northwest Alaska District. I have worked as an Extension faculty member from January, 1977 to the present.

Affiliation with UAF: Professor of Extension, Statewide Foods Specialist, Cooperative Extension Service, UAF

Served in: Lessos, Kenya

Years of service: 1983 - 1985

Group number: Education Sector

Project: I was a physics teacher in a rural secondary school (Sochoi Secondary School) in Lessos, Kenya. I also taught English and other subjects as needed. I was the Games Master and had fun getting the students to exercise!

Affiliation with UAF: Staff/faculty member in the Physics department.

Blog: Karibuni Peace Corps Kenya

Served in: San Jose de Quichinche, Ecuador

Years of service: 1982 - 1985

Project: Ag Extension, and family gardens.  I had quite a bit of success with blackberries and then fruit tree cultivation.

Affiliation with UAF: I am currently working on my master's degree in Rural Development.  I will be an alumni at the end of the Fall 2009 semester.

Served in: Lushoto, Tanzania

Years of service: 2006 - 2007

Group number: Education volunteer -- taught secondary school physics and mathematics

Affiliation with UAF: Alumnus, Physics, B.S.

Served in: Tanzania

Years of service: 2004 - 2006

Project: Secondary education

Affiliation with UAF: Student 2007 to present

Served in: Adowa, Ethiopia

Years of service: 1964 - 1966

Group number: Group 3, teaching and community development

Affiliation with UAF: NSF Summer Institute graduate student in the M.S. teaching program

Served in: Kangahun, Sierra Leone

Years of service: 1987 - 1988

Project: I taught rural subsistence farmers in Sierra Leone how to raise Tilapia fish in freshwater ponds to sell for income. I worked in a remote village located in the rainforest of the Gori Hills in the eastern part of the country, near Guinea. There was no regular transport to my village, nor electricity or running water. The area abounded with fruit, such as bananas, pineapple, oranges, mango and guava. The staple food there was rice with a sauce of either cassava or potato leaves, palm oil, and fish or locally harvested game meat. I saw too many snakes -- mainly cobra and green mamba -- for my liking, and have said since that it's better to be around bears than snakes because bears don't let you almost step on them before they let you know they're there. Certainly the primary "life-shaping" two years of my life.

Affiliation with UAF: Alumnus '86, Fisheries, B.S.

Website: http://www.goodsalmon.com/c5/products/baskets/

Served in: Zakataqla, Azerbaijan

Years of service: 2008 - 2010

Project: I am a member of the second group of youth development volunteers and in the sixth group of volunteers to be sent to Azerbiajan. I am stationed in the Zaqatala region, which many consider the most progressive region in Azerbaijan (besides the capital Baku). I am currently facilitating several college-aged English "conversation" clubs. These clubs are promoted as English-speaking practice clubs, but allow me to challenge participants to critical thinking, community engagement and exposure to a diverse array of interests. Currently, many of my convseration clubs have morphed into specific interest clubs, with one focused on cooking, another on TOEFL preparation, and a third on photography and graphic design (my personal hobby).

I am also working with a group of Volunteers to promote human rights through a traveling video presentation and gender trainings. I am working with a group of community counterparts to complete a Peace Corps Partnership grant to purchase digital cameras to start a youth photography club and am excited about the opportunity to begin working with a group of local farmers on fighting the damaging affects of the local chesnut blight.

Additionally, I enjoy pick-up Ultimate Frisbee games and recently started to learn Russian on top of my Azerbaijan!

Affiliation with UAF: Peace Corps Master's International student in the rural development program

Blog: Far From Nome

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