When Dana Roeber returned from Belize last summer and told her
fiancée Bryan Murray about her desire do something for the
people of third world countries, neither had ever thought about
joining the Peace Corps. But by January they had applied for a
two-year mission.
In March they were offered an assignment in environmental
education in the Caribbean. Joining the Peace Corps meant
replanning their wedding, and though there wasn’t enough time
for Dana to legally change her name, the other option was being
dropped from the program. So they jumped at the chance to go.
“In my geology classes I have heard about how mining
devastates the environment, and I wanted to be a part of a solution
instead of just reading,” Murray said.
On July 5, two weeks after getting married and one week after
graduation, Murray and Roeber will be leaving for two-and-a-half
years in Jamaica, where they hope to help jump-start environmental
conservation movements.
They will put their respective geology/paleobiology and
geography/environmental studies degrees to practical use, teaching
impoverished Jamaicans how to use their fragile resources in a
sustainable manner.
Roeber and Murray are among the 25 new UCLA alumni preparing to
leave for two years to use their skills in the Peace Corps.
Fifty-eight former UCLA students are currently serving with the
Peace Corps throughout the world.
The Peace Corps sends college graduates to countries requesting
their specific skills. Once they arrive, Peace Corps trainees
receive 10 weeks of intensive language and culture training before
beginning their projects.
Murray and Roeber see this first adventure of their life
together as a chance to give back to humanity.
“We’re very excited and anxious to go,” Roeber
said.
“Getting married and leaving the country for
two-and-a-half years makes graduation seem like a much smaller life
change,” she added.
Some, like UCLA alumna Esther Hong, are just returning from
Peace Corps missions.
When Hong graduated from UCLA in 2001 with a degree in
microbiology and molecular genetics, she wanted find out how her
dedication would hold up in a severely disadvantaged position.
“When you volunteer you can go home to your nice apartment
at the end of the day, and I wanted to do more than that,”
Hong said.
Hong left for Gambia in West Africa knowing little more than
where it was on a map. Once there, she taught biology and other
sciences at Gambia College and planned gender empowerment programs
for girls.
In Gambia’s male-dominated society, Hong planned and
taught programs educating girls in the sciences, how to protect
themselves from sexual harassment, and about safe sex.
Hong described the Gambian women’s amazement at the new
information about condoms and AIDS.
“They were amazed. They believe that if you have sex
standing up you won’t get pregnant,” Hong said.
The women Hong instructed in her empowerment classes went on to
challenge cultural constraints by passing their knowledge on to
younger girls.
“They got to share leadership positions, which would have
been unthinkable for most women there,” she said.
Hong was wary about the two-year commitment when she started,
but now she can hardly believe she is back from the program. She
said the two years go quickly because it takes a year to build
trust and relationships, and then, in the second year it is
possible to really get things done.
She feels that being in the Peace Corps made her a better
person: wiser, more worldly and gave her a different
perspective.
“Learning about the average person, your neighbor, is
really priceless,” she said.
“It makes you realize what is really important, that
(people everywhere) are the same as me.”