A recent ASU grad is about to embark on an adventure of a lifetime by going to Mozambique, Africa, with the Peace Corps.
Kolby Granville, who received a degree in secondary education and received a master’s in educational media at ASU, will leave Oct. 23 to instruct schoolteachers on how to better teach English.
In order to volunteer for the Peace Corps, a person must have a degree or have at least five years experience in a specific skill. Members of the Peace Corps use these specific skills to help build stronger communities in underdeveloped countries.
“All the countries around Mozambique speak in English, which means their trade and commerce is in English. The way I see it, if I’m helping people learn English they can get better jobs,” Granville said.
The Peace Corps helps 78 underdeveloped countries around the world.
Granville said he completed the 20-page application, the 3-hour interview and 30-page medical information packet so he can have a new perspective on life.
“I want to go because one, I’m 27 and I’m not ready to spend my life sitting in meetings. The second reason is six years ago at the Arizona Science Center I saw a book, and in the back there was a bag of rice that would fill a 12-oz cup. It said that 50 percent of the world doesn’t eat that much in a day, and I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
Granville works at Learning Edge, where they train companies how to use new software on the Internet.
Marc Senall, the Peace Corps recruiter at ASU, said that a major benefit of the program is the opportunity for scholarships.
“This semester ASU Peace Corps has a new scholarship, where a student could earn his master’s degree for free in any field,” he said.
Granville signed a contract with the East Valley Tribune and will be doing travel articles and sending digital pictures of his experience about once a month for the next two years. He will also be talking to Desert Vista, Tempe and McClintock high schools before he leaves so students there will be able to put a face with the articles. Granville said he wants a new outlook when he is done.
“I want to do something that has value; something I care about. I am also fascinated with the human condition and the way rational people can look at the same set of facts and see a completely different view. It’s all a matter of perspective,” he said.
Senall said that the money situation for members is adequate.
All travel is paid, and after finishing the program each person is given $66,000 that can be taken out before the trip is over if needed. All student loans are deferred and participants receive monthly amounts that let them live a lot more comfortably than the locals.
The Peace Corps have not been drastically affected by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington DC. However, members in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were evacuated because those countries border Afghanistan.
Senall said that the number one complaint he gets is that people aren’t ready to handle the change.
“I sometimes hear that people didn’t know what they are getting into before they go. Some have a hard time dealing with living in a third world country. Sometimes people don’t finish their terms, it’s not common, but it happens. We can’t force them to stay,” he said.
Granville sees the culture shock as a good thing and a way to realize how good Americans have life.
“You don’t know what it’s like to be an American until you aren’t one anymore,” he said.
Reach Sandy Almendarez at salmend@imap2@asu.edu.
