by Khiry Clements

On August 21, the Peace Corps held an interest meeting for students interested in joining.

The informational, held in Powell Hall, gave students insight to what the Peace Corps is about and which steps they should take to begin their Peace Corps career.

“This is also to help seniors get a chance to finally get signed up and informed by the deadline for them to be able to travel in summer 2014,” said Emily Whitfield, the regional recruiter and main presenter for the evening.

Each volunteer must sign up nine to 12 months before his or her desired departure date, so seniors that want to be shipped out on an assignment next summer are applying now.

The information session had a rather large turn out with about forty student attendees.

“(The Peace Corps is) something that I can use to gain some experience while I can also better my skills at the same time,” Valencia Johnson, senior, said.

Founded in the ‘60s, the Peace Corps is a government program that sends volunteers to work in various countries while giving people a better outlook of Americans.

Volunteers work as educators, agriculturalists and health workers by teaching English to non-English speakers, assisting farmers in field work and informing people about vital health issues such as the importance of nutrition, respectively.

Volunteers also work in other areas such as economics.

Today, the Peace Corps serves more than 70 countries, spanning from Latin America, to Africa, Asia and others.

Typically, volunteers and trainees serve for 27 months, three of which are devoted to training.

Anyone is welcome to apply to join the Peace Corps as long as they are 18 years or older.

Over 210,000 Americans have served in the Peace Corps to date, and it currently has 8,073 active members.

Shenika Row, freshman, said she attended the information session to “gain more knowledge and a sense that I have helped someone with my future career.”