Peace Corps Compared to Abroad Study?

 

I started researching the Peace Corps today because I wanted to look into another option that had to do with travel but could be done while out of college but still had a purpose other than vacation. The Peace Corps is a volunteer program ran by the United States to help people outside of the U.S usually with work related to social and economic development.

In the Peace Corps people volunteer to go to other countries and help out. Often it is with the community in the place they are staying. Most people sign up for a project in a country and they go there and do that assigned task. The projects can be in fields like education, health, environment, and community economic development.

Studying abroad and the Peace Corps both have in common that they allow you to go to another country and travel, but there are some differences as well. In the Peace Corps volunteers are usually out of college and you aren’t in the foreign country to study but instead to volunteer. You can still learn about the culture and language of the area you are volunteering in, so you still gain global experience when volunteering in the Peace Corps. Although a thing to keep in mind when volunteering in the Peace Corps you may be signing up for a project in an undeveloped country or area, but when choosing to study abroad you will likely be surrounded by a developed and urban setting in the country you are studying in.

 

Peace Corps volunteers in Guatemala

 

No doubt the two experiences would be very different, but I thought that looking into the Peace Corps would be a good idea since many people who are interested in the world sign up to volunteer in the Peace Corps after college. Usually when you commit to a project you spend a certain amount of time in the Peace Corps working on that project which can be two years or more sometimes depending on the amount of time committed. So the major difference between the two options would be that studying abroad is a studying abroad program while the Peace Corps is a volunteering abroad program.

 

Sources:

Beck, Jessie. "10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Joining the Peace Corps." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 19 June 2014. Web. 06 May 2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jessie-beck/10-things-i-wish-i-knew-before-joining-the-peace-corps_b_5511291.html>.

"Homepage." Peace Corps. Web. 06 May 2015. <http://www.peacecorps.gov/>.