Hand up, shut up.
That is the system Zack Barnett developed to communicate with his class of chatty high school Ukrainian girls. Although it took some time for the 14 girls to grasp that Barnett raised his hand into the air when he wanted them to be quiet – as opposed to wanting them to say “shut up” in unison – once they did understand it, the system worked quite well.
“They would run around screaming, ‘Hello, hello, hello!’” said Barnett. “By the time I left, we were communicating on a level we hadn’t communicated on before.”
The language barrier was only one obstacle Barnett overcame when he spent 27 months in Ukraine as a Peace Corps volunteer. Three months of training in a small Ukrainian village could not prepare him for the element of surprise, which Barnett said was the most difficult thing to adjust to overseas.
“Every day, really, there was something new,” said Barnett.
The structure of the Peace Corps is relatively simple: The organization is technically a government agency, but it is said to operate independently from the government. Volunteers typically apply with a bachelor’s degree – though one is not required – in their mid- to late-’20s. The application takes about one year for a single volunteer and two to three years for a married couple that wishes to be stationed together. Volunteers spend three months training in their host country, and the remaining 24 months doing projects in one of seven areas: education, youth outreach and community development; business development; environment; agriculture; health; HIV/AIDS; and information technology. More than 190,000 people have volunteered since John F. Kennedy inspired the Peace Corps’ establishment in 1961.
The University of Oregon is ranked No. 11 on the Peace Corps’ 2008 list of top volunteer-producing post-secondary education institutions in America. The University of Washington holds the top spot, and the only other West Coast institution beating out Oregon is the University of California, Berkeley, which is ranked No. 8, although it has produced more volunteers than any other institution since 1961. The University of Oregon stands at No. 28 on the all-time list, with 938 volunteers. The Peace Corps is one of the most well-known volunteer organizations in the country and currently sends volunteers to more than 70 countries overseas; that number used to be upwards of 120 but political instability and lack of necessity has led many nations to decline volunteers in recent decades.
Many people attribute the Peace Corps’ success at the University to Eugene’s volunteer-oriented culture, which is apparent even on the University campus. Monthly visits from the Lane Memorial Blood Bank bus and frequent student announcements for nonprofits in packed lecture halls are just a couple of examples of the ways in which the University plays host to volunteerism. The Peace Corps is only one part of a complete ideal.
Barnett thinks the University’s high Peace Corps volunteer output can be attributed to a number of factors, but they all center around Eugene’s “amazing civic energy.”
“There’s really an appreciation for culture in Eugene,” Barnett continued. “I think stereotypically people equate the Peace Corps with hippies and the University of Oregon with hippies, but I don’t think that’s the case. I think the University has evolved.”
“To me there’s just this unspoken connection,” Barnett said. “Of course the University produces volunteers. It just makes sense.”
Brett Holt, the University Peace Corps Recruiter Graduate Teaching Fellow, thinks there is something in the Eugene air that encourages volunteerism.
“The Eugene community promotes volunteerism,” Holt said. “That’s already instilled in people here on campus.”
That is particularly true when it comes to the Peace Corps. Holt said in other places he’s visited, people are surprised to hear the organization still exists.
“In Eugene I’ve never heard that,” Holt said with a hint of pride. “They know what’s going on here.”

Negative press

But there are some who do not hold the Peace Corps in such high esteem. When reports surfaced last month that a U.S. Embassy official in Bolivia asked a volunteer to spy on Cuban and Venezuelan citizens in his host country, the volunteer came forward and said the event was inappropriate. Peace Corps volunteers are not required to support U.S. foreign policy, and they are prohibited from involving themselves in the domestic politics of their host country. It is also against U.S. law to ask volunteers to participate in any intelligence activities.
The story revived an opposition to the Peace Corps by people who believe the organization is another way for the federal government to extend its foreign policy overseas. As a 1999 Washington Post op-ed piece best illustrated: “The Peace Corps is subversive,” wrote the late Michael Kelly, former editor of National Journal. “It attracts idealists and free spirits, and it does not tell them that they are to advance foreign policy. But they are, and they do, because they think they are not so doing … A creation of government that actually understands and exploits human nature. What an idea.”
Although the U.S. Embassy official was fired from his position, significant publicity surrounded the controversy. Holt, the Peace Corps GTF, noted that the event was an anecdote, and is not representative of the involvement of America’s foreign policy in the organization as a whole. Still, that might not be as terrible a thing as people think, Holt said.
“As far as Peace Corps being an extension of U.S. foreign policy, I would say that volunteers are one of the best representatives of what America stands for,” said Holt in an e-mail interview. Additionally, “if they were involved in the host country politics, this would tarnish the reputation of Peace Corps being an independent U.S. federal agency.”
Holt is a returned volunteer who arrived back in the States in 2005 – about nine months early – when he experienced a nerve-damage injury in his shoulders that puzzled the doctors. Holt and his wife volunteered together with an ultimate goal “to show a different side of who Armenians are, rather than the one that was being portrayed through images of war.”
Holt now spends his days meeting with and interviewing University students interested in joining the Peace Corps. In order to fill his position, one must be a current graduate student and returned volunteer. It is customary for volunteers upon their return to America to spread the word about the Peace Corps and share their experience with prospective volunteers, but there is no requirement. Holt is working toward his master’s degree in community and regional planning.
In Armenia, Holt focused on environmental education, developing curriculum in the fields of biology, chemistry and ecology. With the kids, Holt said he went on field trips “just to kind of promote some awareness of the natural environment.”
“Environmental education is a new concept in Armenia,” said Holt. “Their concept of the environment was this little town of asphalt.”
Holt’s secondary project was teaching children how to use computers. The secondary project is one volunteers develop once they have adjusted somewhat to their new place of residence and realized the needs of the community.
Although volunteers have traveled to Armenia since 1992, Holt’s group was only the second environmental education team to work there. Like many volunteers, Holt and his wife experienced frustrations early on, but the anxiety didn’t last.
“It really was about us readjusting to the situation,” he said. “And after we did, everything worked out. I’m glad we didn’t go home.”
What’s more, Holt said he and his wife would like to go back overseas one day, where they both could teach.

Localizing the cause

On Jan. 10, Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy proclaimed Feb. 25 through March 3 Peace Corps Week in the city. One week later, Gov. Ted Kulongoski followed
suit and extended the celebration statewide. Since the Peace Corps’ establishment, 5,282 Oregon residents have volunteered. According to the proclamation, “It is indeed fitting to recognize the achievements of the Peace Corps and honor its volunteers, past and present, and reaffirm our country’s commitment to helping people help themselves throughout the world.”
Maria Lee, public affairs specialist for the Peace Corps’ Northwest Region located in Seattle, said the Pacific Northwest is one of the most participatory regions in the United States.
“There’s sort of a progressive atmosphere here in the Northwest that just doesn’t exist anywhere else in the nation,” Lee said. “There’s also an understanding that we live in an interconnected world.”
During Peace Corps Week in Eugene, there are panels, events and discussions on campus publicizing the organization and providing resources for prospective volunteers. The event certainly results in substantial advertising for the Peace Corps, and may be partly an effort to reverse a recent small but noticeable decline of applicants from the University.
Lee, however, said it is important to remember the volunteer counts are merely “a snapshot in time.” She used Oregon State University as an example. While the institution has in nearly five decades produced more volunteers than the University of Oregon, it didn’t make the list for top schools in 2008, but the University of Oregon did. Those lists have sharp margins, Lee said, and the difference between being ranked or unranked can hang on three or four applications.
“Because the competition is so steep, it can make a difference,” Lee said. “I don’t think it’s indicative of the fact that there’s a decrease of interest and general awareness out there. It’s just on the date that this snapshot was taken, OSU did not make the cut.”

Looking to volunteer

Events such as Peace Corps Week can be critical opportunities for students and prospective volunteers to learn more about the extensive and often intimidating application process.
One such student is University senior Liz Sampson, who was informed last month by the Peace Corps she will depart in January 2009 for a yet-to-be-disclosed country in Latin America, where she will do health education work at rural schools. Sampson became seriously interested in the Peace Corps last fall at an international career forum. Acceptance into a graduate school’s international affairs program – which Sampson hopes to get after she graduates this year with a bachelor’s degree in Latin American studies – requires significant international experience. The experience requirement is why Sampson considers the Peace Corps “the logical next step” for someone like herself who is looking at a future in international government jobs.
Sampson is thrilled she was assigned to her choice region of Latin America, but admitted she is already a little apprehensive about the return trip she will make to America more than three years from today.
While she has high hopes for her Peace Corps experience, Sampson is trying to be realistic about it. She understands there are downsides to everything.
“I know that it’s not all rosy and you’re out there helping people and they’re always appreciating what you’re doing,” Sampson said. However, she believes the mission of the Peace Corps to this day remains genuine, and the government’s current executive branch doesn’t change that. People who volunteer do it for their own reasons, not in support of the president or government leaders, as people did in the 1960s, Sampson said.

“Part of the culture”

When returned volunteers tell stories about their experience, they often speak about the enlightenment that comes with living in a culture completely different from the familiar. In Barnett’s case, the Ukrainian culture made him realize just how dull and misguided American culture can be. But most people do not know that because they’ve never lived anywhere else.
“Nothing can ever top a Peace Corps experience when you’re talking about an international experience,” said Barnett. “You are immersed 100 percent in that culture, and that is the magic of the experience.”
Barnett told one anecdote about the moment he realized he had become a part of that culture. It happened at his students’ graduation party; he invited his parents to fly over from America, and as they were socializing at the table, Barnett kept putting meat on his father’s plate each time it was cleared. When his father finally told him to stop, Barnett’s response was simple: Your plate has to have something on it.
“That’s when we realized we were part of the culture,” said Barnett. He had learned the ways of the dinner table long ago at his host’s house in the village where he spent three months training for his Peace Corps assignment. At that time, he had thought his host was crazy, just as Barnett’s father was thinking of his son at the graduation party.
Barnett said despite his doubts at the beginning of his service, when the time came to return to Oregon, he wasn’t ready. What’s more, he had trouble communicating his experience to people back home. It was particularly frustrating when his friends talked about it like it was a vacation.
“It wasn’t a trip,” Barnett said. “It was life. It’s not a vacation. It’s not a travel agency. I don’t think you’re ever ready.”
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