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Professor plans way to give back By Scott Sisco, ssisco@bgdailynews.com -- 270-783-3256
Marie Guthrie has been teaching English for more than 15 years. Her next students will present a new challenge.
Guthrie left this weekend to begin a stint in the Peace Corps teaching English in Moldova, which had been a part of the Soviet Union and Romania. The people in Moldova speak Romanian.
Guthrie grew up in Bowling Green and earned a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Western Kentucky University before moving to Lexington to earn a doctorate from the University of Kentucky. She taught at a university in Seattle for 15 years, then came back to Bowling Green to teach at Western for a year while she got ready to leave.
“If we’re going to solve the problems of the world, people have to be educated,” she said. “Being able to read and write well is part of it.”
Guthrie decided to try something different with the Peace Corps.
“I’m at the time in my life where I wanted an adventure,” she said. “This is a way for me to pay rent on this piece of Earth I’m renting and figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life.”
As an American, Guthrie said she has led a privileged life and used more than her share of the planet’s natural resources.
“It makes sense to give a little back and invest in people,” she said.
Guthrie said she will find out what she will be teaching after she’s been in the country for a few weeks. She is hoping to teach at a university.
“I could be working with high-schoolers or grade-schoolers,” she said. “I just don’t know.”
Guthrie hasn’t stopped learning.
“If you stop learning, you stop growing,” she said. “I fully expect that I’ll learn at least as much as I’ll be teaching. I’m really looking forward to that.”
Before going abroad, Guthrie stopped in Philadelphia for training this week. She’ll leave for Moldova late this week.
Guthrie said she isn’t worried about her safety with the instability of the world.
“The Peace Corps only goes where it’s wanted,” she said. “I’m really not worried about anything like that.”
Guthrie hasn’t decided what she will do after returning from her 2-year, 3-month stint in the Peace Corps. She may decide to return to teaching, either in the United States or abroad, she said.
“Two years is a long time,” Guthrie said. “We’ll see what happens.” Click on a link below for more stories on PCOL
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