More than 50 Returned/Evacuated Peace Corps Volunteers Join Korbel
For a year and a half, Jane Makepeace, a Peace Corps volunteer, called West Africaâs Togo home.
âI was in the agriculture and environmental sector, but really once you get out to your village, you kind of just take on whatever your village needs addressed. I taught at my local middle school. I taught agriculture classes, and I taught English. I worked on creating gardens with people, small-animal husbandry groups, health work at the clinic,â she says.
Though she had planned to stay in Togo for another year and a half, that plan was upended as COVID-19 began its deadly global spread. When an optional evacuation turned mandatory within the span of just a few days, Makepeace was forced to abandon her day-to-day life and plans.
âIt was really weird,â she explains. âMy village didnât understand what was happening or why I had to leave because the general consensus was, weâd be safer in Africa. A lot of my projects â I donât really know what happened to them or if they ended up being completed.â
Makepeace returned to her home state, Montana, looking to start again, but found that no one was hiring. Thatâs when she turned her thoughts to graduate school and learned that, through a partnership with the Peace Corpsâ Coverdell Fellows program, the żì»îapp was extending a helping hand to people in just her situation.
Since 2003, the University has participated in the Coverdell program, which varies from school to school and which offers scholarships to returned Peace Corps volunteers. Until this year, żì»îappâs Josef Korbel School of International Studiesâ Coverdell Fellowship operated on a competitive basis. But, witnessing increased need, the Korbel School decided to make some changes. According to Daniel Doerr, Korbelâs director of graduate enrollment and Coverdell Fellowship coordinator, the University boosted its award for Coverdell Fellows significantly and removed the competitive aspect of the application process. This allowed the school to extend the fellowship to all admitted returned and evacuated Peace Corps volunteers.
âFrom Colombia and Ukraine to Cambodia and Rwanda, they have served in countries around the globe, and they have worked on everything from business, health and environmental issues to education and English-language instruction,â Doerr says. âBecause of their service and the roles they have had overseas, they are perfect fits for the programs at Korbel, and thatâs one of the reasons we tried to do what we could for these folks this year.â
For Makepeace, this additional financial aid made graduate school possible â a step she believes will significantly impact her pursuit of a career in international development.
And sheâs not alone. This yearâs incoming graduate student cohort includes more than 50 returned/evacuated Peace Corps volunteers, who served in 29 different countries. These students represent nearly a quarter of the incoming Korbel class and signify a re-energizing of the relationship between żì»îapp and the Peace Corps, Doerr says.
âItâs really about facilitating this intercultural awareness and understanding,â he explains. âThese two institutions prepare leaders to take on the most pressing global issues of the generation.â
Korbel Dean Fritz Mayer says the University values what these students bring to the classroom.
âThese are people who have already voted with their feet to show that they care about international relations, and they have had real-world experience around the world,â Mayer says. âWhen youâre learning about political economy or international relations, it can be very abstract. To have people in the classroom who can draw on their personal experiences and say, âWhen I was in Ghana this is what I saw,â and to share those very concrete examples, it brings this material to life.â
Debbie Gaylinn, director of graduate student affairs, agrees: âThey bring a level of experience that is really just going to add to the dialogue and the conversation in every class they are in. Their experiences are going to permeate the whole program.â
For her part, Makepeace, who plans to study international development, is excited to begin her żì»îapp journey alongside so many fellow Peace Corps volunteers. Although she regrets that she canât be back in Togo, sheâs ready to put all of her work and knowledge to use in the classroom.
â[We] understand what itâs like to be on the ground with the people we are trying to help, what their day-to-day lives actually look like and what the best approaches are to reach people,â Makepeace says. âI think this will provide a lot of different perspectives from people who have seen directly the benefits and what is and isnât working in development right now.â