Not ready to settle down into the workforce after college? Peace Corps gives students the opportunity to explore the world and themselves.

On Sept. 14, a recruiter from Peace Corps, Melissa Lawent, came to the University of Alaska Southeast to share with students what Peace Corps is, what it takes to be a competitive candidate and some of her own experiences.

The Peace Corps gives qualified individuals the opportunity to travel to one of 70 countries to work for 27 months providing aide work in your field of expertise. Peace Corps volunteers can work in education, health and HIV/AIDS, Environment, Agriculture and Youth and Community Development among other fields.

“It gives students a chance to, not only practice what they’ve learned  at school, but its also an amazing chance to see and experience a part of the world that most people haven’t experienced,” Lawent said.

There are lots of benefits to being a Peace Corps volunteer including paid travel to your country, health care and monthly stipend while overseas, and a $6,000 adjustment allowance when you return to the U.S. The Peace Corps also gives you opportunities for student loan deferment, federal jobs and graduates school before and after volunteering.

“Without a doubt I can say that the job that I got when I first got back from Peace Corps, I was running a girls program, a non-profit in Milwaukee, and there was no way I would have been successful at the job without my Peace Corps experience,” Lawent said.

Lawent who lived in Constanta, Romania from 2003 to 2005 and taught English from kindergarten through high school, shared some of her experiences.

“It was a really great opportunity to see and experience first hand history. In the sense of what it was like living in a post-communist society and talking to people because it was relatively recently (a communist country),” Lawent said. She even lived in a standard communist-style apartment building. “The building style was something where immediately you saw the mark.”

When a volunteer first arrives in the country, they go through three months intensive training and language program. Living and speaking in another country can be difficult and humorous, as Marsha Squires, UAS’ Academic Exchange and Study Abroad Coordinator andPeace Corps volunteer in Ecuador, told:

“For a long time, I was saying that I was embarrassed, I’m so embarassed…and I was actually saying I was pregnant, I’m so pregnant. And then there’d be this big crack up and I’d think ‘Oh, they understand me’ and they’re laughing with me. I think I was six months into it when finally someone said, ‘Marsha, you haven’t changed.’”