Making an impact: FSU leads in Peace Corps volunteers
Before graduating from Florida State University,
Jeanne Lott had only ever called Miami, Florida her home.
“Now I have two homes!” she said, referring to
the other place she calls home: Ethiopia. She describes her time there as a
Peace Corps volunteer as “life-defining.”
Lott was first exposed to the Peace Corps during
a study abroad trip to Paraguay in her sophomore year.
“Whenever I told people I was from the United
States, they asked, ‘Cuerpo de paz?’ (‘Peace Corps?’)” Lott said. “After
returning to Florida, I researched Peace Corps on the Internet and found out
that FSU had a recruiter.”
Lott submitted an application to volunteer and
was accepted her senior year of college, joining the ranks of nearly 1,000 FSU
alumni who have served as Peace Corps volunteers since its establishment in
1961.
This year, Florida State University leads all Florida
colleges and universities in producing the most Peace
Corps volunteers.
Nationally, FSU ranks among the top 20 large
undergraduate schools, with nearly 40 undergraduate alumni currently
volunteering worldwide. And, for the first time, FSU also ranks as a top
graduate school, tied at No. 10 with nearly 10 graduate students currently
volunteering.
FSU has consistently ranked in the top 20
undergraduate schools for three consecutive years, and with this year’s
announcement, it moves up two places.
“Our steady placement among the top producers of
Peace Corps volunteers exemplifies our institutional commitment to global
engagement, as well as our students’ hands-on dedication to making the world a
better place,” said FSU President Jim Matthews.
The university also ranks among the top 40
volunteer-producing colleges and universities of all time.
View the complete 2015 rankings of the top 25 schools in each undergraduate category here. A
video featuring several of the top schools can be found here.
Making an impact, gaining perspective
Cynthia James, director of Peace Corps, believes
the Peace Corps provides an indispensable opportunity for young people to make
a difference in communities around the world.
“Volunteers make lasting change by living and
working at the grassroots level in their communities of service, and using
their talents to tackle some of the most critical challenges in international
development,” James said.
Lott was assigned to Ethiopia, where she served
as a community health volunteer focusing on HIV/AIDS education and prevention.
Adjusting to life there wasn’t easy, but Lott found it to be both exciting and
rewarding.
“Even after two years of practice, I’m still not
fluent [in the local language, Afan Oromo] but I learned that sometimes we
don’t need any language at all to communicate,” she said. “Peace Corps is all
about cultural exchange, so while my work there has some lasting impact, I
think the day-to-day interactions were what will really stay in people’s minds.
Just taking the time to smile and say hi to someone in their local language is
mind-blowing for them and will forever change their view of people from the
United States.”
As part of her assignment in Ethiopa, Lott
hosted a World AIDS Day Celebration with the town health office. It featured mural
paintings, panel discussions, distribution of 1,200 community-specific HIV
informational pamphlets and 6,000 condoms donated by the local university.
Lott also coached youth in Grassroot Soccer,
which taught them about HIV, and was a member of Peace Corps Ethiopia’s Gender
and Development Committee, helping to organize and implement the first-ever
Action for Gender Equality Summit, a weekend-long youth camp where students
learned about gender concepts, health and leadership.
“It was my work with youth that I was most
passionate about,” she said.
Lott graduated from FSU with a bachelor’s degree
in global health with a minor in biochemistry, but her time in the Peace Corps
resulted in a change of heart. She is now pursuing a different career path,
working toward her master of education in elementary education at FSU's Teachers
College.
She is also now a Peace Corps campus recruiter
at FSU.
“I’ve been really impressed … with the level of
interest that FSU students have about Peace Corps,” she said. “We’ve even
started a Peace Corps club this semester, full of amazing students who want to
join.”
“No
matter what your personal experience is like, you cannot come out unchanged.
You also gain a new world view and interpersonal skills that will stay with you
for life,” she said.
FSU will be hosting a number of activities and
events across all campus locations and throughout the community in honor of Peace Corps Week, March 1-7. Peace Corps Week
commemorates President John F. Kennedy’s establishment of
the Peace Corps on March 1, 1961.
For more information about the Peace Corps, visit peacecorps.gov or visit the Peace
Corps’ Facebook and Twitter pages.
Emma James, emma.james@FSU.edu
FSU News
