When UCLA alumnus Phu Tranchi first found out his Peace Corps assignment, he wasn’t even sure where the country was located.
“When I first received my package that said I was going to Kenya, the first thing I had to do was pull out an atlas to figure out where the heck Kenya was,” Tranchi said.
Tranchi’s experiences in the country have certainly made him significantly more aware of not only the country’s location, but also its social and cultural customs. Tranchi, who received his undergraduate and graduate degrees at UCLA in physiological science in 1995 and 1997, respectively, knew that he wanted to teach and go abroad when he finished his studies, rather than follow through on his original plan of going to medical school.
After serving as a graduate teaching assistant for biology Professor Peter Narins and speaking with him about his experiences in the Peace Corps, Tranchi completed the application process and decided the organization was right for him, entering the Peace Corps in October 1997.
While abroad, Tranchi worked as a high school chemistry and physics teacher in the rural village Rubate, located in the eastern foothills of Mount Kenya. He also started a project to bring water to the community through rainwater catchment tanks, which still exist in the village to this day.
Tranchi said that these experiences changed his life and that he would repeat them without hesitation.
“You’re supposed to say that getting married or having a child is the best thing that has ever happened to you, but beyond a shadow of a doubt the best thing I’ve ever done in my life (was serving in) the Peace Corps,” Tranchi said. “The wife that I married and the kids that I have are a result of my experiences there in terms of the kind of person that I’ve become.”