Tesses and my converstation about the peace corps is continued in Part 2:

I do know that UMT has a large percentage of alumni that do go back and join the peace corps in later life! (We’re listed #6 for medium colleges in 2015 with 27 alumni volunteering) But I think it’s probably easier to do when your young. I have a friend who went.

That’s good to know that people go back later in life.

I remember reading that in the Alumni magazine or something, they were saying how nice it is to have so many alumni that volunteer. I was kind of disappointed because wanted to join the Peace Corps out of high school. I actually got in an argument with a friend of mine who had been in the peace corps, and she said that you’re too young because you’re not ready. I said, you’re telling me our our government can train people to go to war but they can’t train people to go help people in other countries. She said yeah, but you’re going to be sent to this strange country and you’re gonna be all by yourself, it’s not like in the army where you have all this training and you’re going to be with big troops etc, and I said, well that’s just a management problem. They need to have people go to less areas, and have more people go together and have more intense training. I know they say they want people to have a college degree because you can bring more skills. It seems to me  it would be better for our planet if we had more people joining the peace corps then the army.

It’s funny you say that because I actually applied right out of high school and I was so disappointed when I got the rejection letter. I didn’t know either that you needed a degree. I heard that it was because so many people were applying to go. They were trying to keep the standards higher, because it’s growing so much people are so interested. Which is Great! I had no idea, but I applied. I didn’t have much experience but it was something that I really wanted to do.

Isn’t that part of why you want to join to get experience. I still have the hardest time, you can train someone in boot camp for 3 weeks, and you can’t train someone to join the peace corps.

I agree with you.

The other day I was watching part of an Officer and a Gentleman, and I was thinking this is what you need to do. They were getting ready to go into the flight simulator, go down into this swimming pool, and this one guy almost drowned, couldn’t get his seat belt off,  if you can do this kind of intense training, if you send them off in a group somewhere, they’re gonna get more done anyway instead of sending them off with one person and a college degree by themself… I don’t know, I certainly don’t have any experience … I don’t really understand war movies, because we spend more money on bullets then you do so we win, we spend more money on that kind of thing so we win? … Makes no sense to me…

I hear what you’re saying definitely…

Do you have a country you want to go to? Do you have a project you want to work on? Do you have plan? Do you have a country you want to go to?

While singing up for the peace corps there are different areas of expertise, 2 of them I am interested in are both environmental and agricultural, that’s where my field of studies is in. Certain areas I’m interested in are Benin in Sout Africa and Nepal. I think I would like to get far out there and be completely absorbed in a new culture. To see parts of the world and connect with people that I thought I could never connect with. I would like to work in the environmental field or the agricultural area. Helping people in developing countries learn how to grow efficiently be able to have access to knowledge on growing and being sustainable. Growing your own crops and clean water and stuff like that.

Do you want to tell us a little bit about the process? You said your in the middle? Is it a long application? Do you have to have recommendations from professors? What’s it take to get to go to the Peace Corps these days?

Well, I am working on it, you have to write,  a page why you want to go into the Peace Corps, it’s good to have references. If you talk to an advisor he/she will kind of steer you in the right direction, they’ll give you an example of how your application or resume should look it.

Im not rushing, I’m gonna graduate in a year. They say to apply 9-months to a year before you want to go. So if I wanted to leave on a project next fall, I would apply now, but I think I would like a little bit more time to spend some time with family and friends before I take off. That is if I get accepted!

Well we’ll all send some thoughts and prayers out there that you get accepted!

Thank you!

So there’s a lot of people applying these days, I think you millennials are a generation that rocks! The more I hear about millennial the more they seem so socially minded, and environmentally conscious!

It definitely is, it’s wonderful to see people taking the initiative and becoming environmentally conscious. Reminding each other, it can’t keep going on this way, it’s about time.

There was a big thing about Glacier Park this morning, how people should come see the park, because the glaciers are melting, and that’s just right in our backyard. 

My parents and I at Iceberg Lake back in the late 80’s in Glacier National Park

And then Bill McKibben, do you know who he is from 350.org. Last Sept, they had a huge march in NYC to raise awareness for the environment. Ban Ki Moon the UN Secretary General, kind of called for this big green movement and Bill McKibben took it on. 

Actually he was on Democracy Now! yesterday talking about how their divestment movement, is taking off and how many colleges are divesting their funds from the fossil fuel industry and that’s the biggest thing starting a huge movement. California just made a university all the big universities of California like UC Berkley etc, said they are not going to use their investment portfolios to invest in fossil fuels anymore. They’re stocks and things, really pulling out of the fossil fuel industry.

Wow, that’s great to know.

It’s kind of weird because Obama just went up to the Arctic and said we need to pay attention to climate change and then allowed Shell to drill. Say one thing and then let another thing happen, I don;t really know how it all works, it seems like things are more hopeful, where the dollars go…very Grassroots organization

Media didn’t cover very well, it was just a huge march, so many people marching in NYC.

350.org because 350 parts per million is the amount of carbon dioxide we can have in the atmosphere to sustain life as we know it right now. And we broke 350 back in December of 2013 I think and we’re well over 400 ppm now. That’s what’s making the temperature rise, we’ve gone 1º and we can’t go over 2º And people say what difference is it gonna make? We can’t raise the temperature 2º. It means you’re not gonna have maple syrup from maple trees in Vermont. It means you’re not gonna have apples grown where they were grown. Some people say, I don’t like the cold, what do I care? But you do care. Some people say there’s kids already born who aren’t gonna have a planet. We never know if we keep going at this pace. But on a positive note we have people like you in the world and Bill McKibben making change!

Thanks you so much for sharing with us! Good luck with everything! Such a great woman I see a great future for you!