Escolastica Zepeda's two-year mission is to improve economic conditions as a consultant to small businesses and budding entrepreneurs in the Peace Corps in Western Africa
Peace Corps squad working for a better world
By Jason Williams
Record Staff Writer
Published Monday, March 22, 2004
Escolastica Zepeda's two-year mission is to improve economic conditions as a consultant to small businesses and budding entrepreneurs in Western Africa.
As a Peace Corps volunteer, the Stockton resident awaits official word from Washington on where she'll be sent. But no matter where she goes, her 27-month duty will bring new experiences. Other volunteers on missions have found conveniences such as washing machines, meals at a kitchen table and three-bedroom homes can be foreign concepts.
"I believe there are a lot of programs to lift those underdeveloped countries to improve their way of life," said Zepeda, 35, who graduated in May with a degree in international economics from San Diego State University.
"They have the resources, but they don't have the education," she said. "I like the way the Peace Corps interacts with countries."
Zepeda said she's received 10 inoculations for her new job. It took nine months just to process her application.
The Mexican native, who plans to learn French as a third language, expects to leave in June, following in the steps of more than 180,000 volunteers who have preceded her since President Kennedy made the plea for service work more than four decades ago. Zepeda said she choose Africa for her volunteer work because serving in Latin America wouldn't have been a challenge. She knows the language and the culture and has traveled there.
Peace Corps volunteers have included 90 Stockton residents and 180 graduates from University of the Pacific. Four Pacific students are in service right now, including a student each in Togo and Niger in Western Africa.
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And there's a student in Armenia, in Eastern Europe, and another in Guyana, in South America, according to Dennis McMahon, a Peace Corps spokesman in San Francisco.
There are hopes more of Pacific's students will be recruited at a meeting Thursday.
On a national level, more than 24,000 Californians, the most from any state, have volunteered. There are 885 Californians currently in Peace Corps service. New York has the next highest number of volunteers, 11,145, with 412 New York residents now serving.
Amy Beck, 27, who works as an environmental consultant in Oakland, graduated in 1998 from Pacific with a degree in biology. Originally from Redding, Beck worked in San Diego as an environmental consultant for three years and later moved to Jamaica to work in the Peace Corps.
Beck helped principals and teachers include environmental education in the curriculum at 12 schools and helped develop a marine park management plan.
"I wanted to work abroad, and there were some altruistic needs I wanted to fulfill," she said.
"It was more 'why not' rather than 'why?' I was at a point in my life when I was able to, and I did."
She learned how to cook Jamaican-style and hand-wash her clothes in a bucket.
"It's time-consuming and hard on your hands," she said. "It's a First World convenience that I missed."
Recruiters seek people who are self-motivated and self-starters who have demonstrated leadership abilities.
"They have to have an adventurous spirit, because they will be going into uniquely different cultural and physical environments," said McMahon, 38, who volunteered from 1991 to 1993 and trained others in Mali, Africa, for another two years.
