On Campus Story

Masters Anniversary
By
Steven Rosenberg

Brooke Cashman wouldn’t trade being stranded by a typhoon, followed by Communist rebels and having her best friend almost shot for anything. In fact, it was the best time of her life, because she was making a difference as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Cashman was one of four former American University students who returned to campus last night for the 10th anniversary celebration of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Another Language Master’s International Program (TESOL) which is part of the Peace Corps. TESOL allows graduate students to continue their education while helping students in over 70 countries learn English.

“I’ve learned more from that experience, than any other professional experience,” she said.

The students shared their experiences with dozens of prospective students, emphasizing that American University currently has the third most amount of alumni volunteers of any school of its size. In introducing the students, University Provost Scott Bass said that the peace corps is “a profound and life changing experience” and talked with great pride of the impact American University has had on the success of the program.

Cashman, who now teaches in the English department at Georgetown University, volunteered on a small island in the Philippines, in a job she says she believes got her where she is today. Learning how to interact with people of another culture has helped her prepare for the many different cultures that she interacts with at a major University such as Georgetown.

She recalled how openly friendly everyone was to her. As the only Caucasian on the island, she was given a celebrity status.

“I understand what it means to be Angelina Jolie,” she said.

Still, she said it wasn’t always glamorous. She said it takes a certain type of individual, one who can overcome stressful situations, to complete this type of program.

“Everyone should not do the Peace Corps,” she asserted.
The program requires a three year commitment. Students spend one year in graduate school, one year in the Peace Corps, and then one more year in graduate school.

Jody Olsen, acting director, stressed the importance of the student’s task. She reflected on one story, in particular, involving Peace Corps members who tried to teach Pride and Prejudice to students in Kazakhstan, a nation in Central Asia. These were kids who would have known who the author of the book, Jane Austen, was until these interactions. She said she felt proud to witness two cultures coming together.

“It’s about how people think,” she said. Olsen was referring to the idea that these volunteers are able to help mold the minds of these young kids and they themselves learn from them.

Volunteer Ben Houle, who now teaches elementary school kids, said that teaching in Russia taught him that the Russian people are “some of the hardest working people I’ve ever met.”

Still, the majority of the speakers talked about how rewarding they found the experience of serving in the Peace Corps while studying abroad. They have all added a great amount of life experience that cannot be replicated in a normal work environment.

Olsen said the Peace Corps and the Master’s International Program have grown in their ability to reach students since she first started volunteering 43 years ago. She said the 200 percent increase in applications is a testament to the commitment of a new generation of students. It has gotten to the point where she wants to track down former volunteers to tell them of the great impact they have left on the students they have taught in their respective countries and to discuss with them the impact these experiences have had on their lives.

John Mark King, who studied and volunteered in Uzbekistan, said he was writing obituaries for a local newspaper, and he knew he needed a change, so he joined the program and it changed his life as it allowed him to discover new important skills like learning Uzbek.

He said the two happiest times in his entire life were recently when his son was born and one evening while eating dinner as the sunset, which he described as “the perfect moment in the perfect place.” Now, King is using his skills to open an ESL school in Istanbul.

After 10 years, the American University TESOL program has touched what Olsen calculates are thousands of lives across the world, from Tunisia to Armenia. For people like volunteer, Ben Houle, the effects are just as strong in the other direction.

“It’s the hardest job you’ll ever love,” he said.