Peace Corps, SUNY create partnership

A new agreement between the State University of New York and the Peace Corps will allow SUNY graduate students to earn academic credit for two years of Peace Corps service, as part of the Peace Corps Master's International Program.

The Peace Corps is a volunteer organization whose goal is to bring educated young men and women to other countries and empower the people there. It promotes the American values to other nations and exposes volunteers to a different culture that they bring back home.

The master's international program allows students to incorporate overseas service into their master's degree. Students will have to apply separately to the Peace Corps and to a SUNY graduate program to prepare them for service, according to the announcement of the new partnership.

"Buffalo State, through its multidisciplinary studies degree programs, is poised to serve graduate students interested in this exciting opportunity," Kevin Railey, associate provost and dean of the Graduate School, said in a statement. "We will be exploring ways to structure these opportunities this year."

After being accepted into the program, students will have to complete initial course work at their school. They will then be assigned to the country of service and travel to their site to begin training. Generally, assignments are determined according to the needs and requests of the host country. Anyone who joins the Peace Corps agrees to travel to any place where help might be needed. However, the organization takes into account each person's strengths and weaknesses and tries to match them with the appropriate country, according to information from the Peace Corps' website.

After completing their Peace Corps service, students will return to school to fulfill any requirements necessary for graduation. Essentially, the Masters International program will give them the opportunity to transform their volunteer service into their graduate work, allowing them to earn credits, according to the announcement.

Over the years, more than 100 Buffalo State alumni have decided to dedicated their time and efforts to the Peace Corps.

"I've talked to probably a hundred people who have done Peace Corps service and I've never talked to anyone who wasn't absolutely thrilled they did it. They really saw it as a formative, eye-opening experience that changed them in many ways," said Lisa August, associate director of the Career Development Center. August coordinates Peace Corps meetings on campus.

"They were better able to think on their feet, they were better able to respond to changes in workplace environments and working with others because they had faced unexpected situations in a foreign country and were able to overcome obstacles they never thought that they would," she said.

One of those who served with the Peace Corps is Dove Russo, a graduate student in public administration and non-profit management at Buffalo State. She said Peace Corps service "helps you understand your own culture and start looking at American culture as not always the best. We may do things in a certain way and it works for us but it doesn't mean it works for everyone and there's no reason we should super impose our beliefs and values and our ways of doing things in any other country. "

Russo spent two years in Cape Verde, Africa. Her job was to teach impoverished women business classes. She also ran a girls' summer camp aimed at teaching life skills and educating girls on how to avoid teen pregnancy and HIV, and how to start their own business. Russo said Peace Corps service solidified her decision to work at non-profit organizations or agencies such as the Peace Corps or the AmeriCorps, "agencies that weren't really about making money but about making a difference. I had a lot of these beliefs and values before but going into Peace Corps kind of made them more tangible and made them more solid in my life," she said.

With the new partnership, more SUNY students may soon be having similar experiences of their own.

Maria Yankova can be reached by email at yankova.record@live.com