Peace Corps

A Post-Graduate Opportunity

Peace Corps offers a one-of-a-kind international experience while providing you with leadership and cross-cultural skills to stand out in today’s global job market.

Opportunities await in more than 70 countries to teach classrooms full of children eager to learn, facilitate community business ventures to support economic development, help families produce food for better nutrition, show villages how to conserve natural resources, educate entire towns about HIV/AIDS and malaria prevention, or introduce resources for local women and youth.

Since 1961, over 200 University of Toledo alumni have served in the Peace Corps.

Learn more about how you can make a difference!

Check out the work that volunteers do, learn more about positions.
See available openings, explore positions in the countries where Peace Corps Volunteers serve.
Learn about the benefits of being a volunteer, discover the financial, professional, educational, and medical benefits of Peace Corps service.

Interested? Talk with University of Toledo Peace Corps recruiter Danny Livengood (614.772.6799).

What have past UToledo Peace Corps volunteers experienced?

Read on to learn what UToledo Alumni who volunteered with the Peace Corps thought about their experience after graduation:

Jeff Gohrband
Africa

Sean Waxman
People's Republic
of China

Barbie Allen
Jordan

Laura Vogtsberger
de Rivera
El Salvador

Lindsay Lowe
Turkmenistan

Jeff Gohrband
UT Alum
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer
Malawi 2012-2014

I served in the Peace Corps from 2012-2014 in the Southern African country of Malawi as a Natural Resource Management Volunteer. I first became interested in the Peace Corps as a student at UT. I attended a Peace Corps sponsored presentation at the Student Union. I was nervous about the idea of living overseas for two years, but I ran over to the Carlson Library to fill out an application online; I have since had no regrets!

I was posted in the district of Nkhotakota, in the village of Chinthankhwa where I worked with district forestry counterparts and also community members around the Nyenje Forest Reserve. I found that my two main roles as a Peace Corps Volunteer were best described as a community educator and also as a learner.

Forestry project My counterparts and I worked to implement tree nurseries with interested groups and communities as a means of addressing the critical issue of deforestation that is taking place in rural communities around Malawi. For other primary and secondary projects, we worked cooperatively with community groups to determine several community needs that could be addressed with a sustainable approach. These projects included; working with women's groups to establish small-scale savings and loan schemes, working with local farmers to implement and adopt a low-input beekeeping program, and working with a group of students at the local secondary school in after school programs that focused on HIV/AIDS prevention, life-skills and English grammar.

Apart from technical knowledge, a huge part of the Peace Corps experience comes through cultural exchange. I was surrounded by a new language, Chichewa, and a community of people who were eager to teach it to me. I was also immersed in a completely new culture that I had to learn and adapt to. My presence in Chinthankhwa village taught my Malawian neighbors certain aspects of American culture and finally, a blog that I wrote served as a platform for Americans to learn about Malawi; an otherwise obscure country in Africa that goes unnoticed.

Overall, the two year experience I had in the Peace Corps was well worth it, and something that will be an ever-present influence in my life . Living and working in Malawi has taught me a lot about myself, and has given me broader perspective of the greater world.

Zikomo Kwambiri - thank you very much

Sean Waxman
UT Alum
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer
People's Republic of China 2010-2012

Sean on teh Great Wall of China As a Peace Corps Education Volunteer in western China, I was given a broad mission - to teach others, and to learn something myself. The fact that the Peace Corps gives you basic training and sends you to off a remote corner of the world may sound unsettling to some people. But for me, it was the best opportunity that I could ever be given. The Peace Corps enables you to create something out of nothing. That's the beauty of the program. You make your experience; whether you choose to teach others your hobby, start health awareness campaigns, or simply be a friend to those around you- the world is truly yours to shape. This amount of freedom can make or break you. The choice is yours.

The skills I acquired in the Peace Corps combined with the education I received at UT helped to start my career with the federal government and are essential to my everyday work at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Our nation needs young people who not only have deep international experience, but who also possess the ability to create and innovate. The Peace Corps is a tool for you to create something positive in another country, develop yourself, and develop your own country all-in-one.

Sean in Tibet Sean with group of students

Barbie Allen
UT Alum
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer
Jordan 2010-2012

My Peace Corps experience was challenging, exciting and meaningful.

Learning two different languages and living in Jordan for 3 years taught me
how to be more humble and caring to those in great need.

My Jordanian family and friends have become a special part of my life forever.

Our Peace Corps Jordan motto was "If it doesn't challenge you,
it doesn't change you".

My Arabic instructor drew a map of the places I lived in America living
in Southern California and after service returning to Ohio.

Peace Corps swearing in ceremony Barbie Allen

Laura Vogtsberger de Rivera
UT Alum
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer
El Salvador 2005-2008

My name is Laura Vogtsberger de Rivera and I served in El Salvador (2005-2008). I was a Environmental Education
volunteer and my primary service was done with the elementary school in a small caserio (village) teaching and
working w/ the students and teachers on ways to protect the environment (recycling, reforestation, trash cleanup,
lombriculture, biodiversity, etc). I also worked with the adults in the community as well, alongside the health
promoter, forming a Sanitation Committee, bringing trash pickup for the first time to the community and doing
a reforestation project within the town. I also participated in several AIDS, nutrition and medical workshops within
the community.

I joined the Peace Corps when I was 33 years old. I actually never really imagined the impact serving in the Peace
Corps would have on me until I finished my service. I signed up to serve with the idea that my service would have
an impact only on those that I was helping....sure I'd learn a new language and spend some time away from home,
but I never really calculated my growth into the picture. The friendships I made in my community, those that were
not as welcoming to me and the country as a whole changed me in ways that I still find difficult to explain. I look
back now on all the things that I accomplished, as well as my failures, and I am quite proud of myself, but also of
the community who tried their best to accommodate me and my ideas so that they could make changes in their lives
for the better. I wholeheartedly believe that the Peace Corps gives you a chance to help others, but in more ways
than one, those "others" in the country being served, end up helping volunteers much, much more. I've been able
to fulfill all of the Peace Corps three goals and am now working in the United States assisting those in my community.
The journey never really ends after leaving the Peace Corps and finding ways to continue to assist others, abroad or
here in America, is always on my mind.

Laura with children and their books recycling project Laura with children holdin gup art work

kids painting map school garden community trash pick up

community meeting laura picking coffee

Lindsay Lowe
UT Alum
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer
Central Asian country of Turkmenistan 2010-2012

I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 2010-2012 in the Central Asian country of Turkmenistan.

With my degree in Recreation Therapy from UT, I was assigned to work as a Health Education Volunteer.
I spent much of my service working with the youth of my community teaching them preventative health topics.
I taught health clubs at my local clinic in the mornings and afternoons. My dedicated students went against all
societal norms in attending the crazy American's health lessons! We started at the basics - teeth brushing and
hand washing - and advanced to more serious topics such as HIV prevention, My counterpart, a local doctor,
helped me make connections in my clinic and was one of the first medical professionals in our town to really
start looking at preventive vs. curative medicine. In addition to health I also utilized my degree and held
sports club and leisure resource clubs.

While the focal point of my service was to educate my community about health - none of that would've
been possible without the friendships I made along the way. My students and my counterpart became
close friends - showing me around town, celebrating holidays with me and opening their doors to me
like I was a member of the family. My closest friend, Lachyn, started out just helping me teach health
lessons in Turkmen. Her and her family became like my second host family and we are still friends today.

Speaking of host families - I spent two years living in the city of Balkanabat, Turkmenistan with the most
amazing host family- and especially host sister! My host sister became my confidant and my biggest fan.
She pushed me to keep going on the hard days and constantly reminded me the positive effect I was
having on our community. She spoke from experience having become fluent in English from a previous PCV.

My love of my work, my friends and my adopted Turkmen culture made my two years in the
Peace Corps unforgettable. I am a huge advocate of Peace Corps and encourage those interested to pursue it!

It truly will be the "toughest job you'll ever love"!

Turkmenistan

Center for International Studies and Programs

Peace Corps

A Post-Graduate Opportunity

What have past UToledo Peace Corps volunteers experienced?