RPCV Kristine Fowler-Geis is a singer in the top 20 in Y-City Star



"Someone told me when I was young that I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket and I set out to prove them wrong by becoming the best singer I could be," she said.

RPCV Kristine Fowler-Geis is a singer in the top 20 in Y-City Star

Kristine Fowler-Geis

Photo: © Leonard Hill

Kristine Fowler-Geis has traveled many roads to find herself where she is in the top 20 in Y-City Star. Fowler-Geis, who will turn 35 on the night of the next round of competition, is a stay at home mom to daughters Miranda and Carolyn, wife to Ed Geis and teaches aerobics at the YMCA.

No "Desperate Housewife," Fowler-Geis counts herself lucky to be able to stay at home to raise her two young daughters and credits her husband for taking on a second job to make that a possibility.

Originally from Canton, Fowler-Geis said her parents instilled values of "giving back." Those values led to Fowler-Geis to decide in college to become involved in the Peace Corps. Dating Ed Geis at the time, Fowler-Geis told him of her decision and told him that she didn't expect him to wait for her, but would like to think that they could see one another when she returned. He did one better than that and joined the Peace Corps, too.

When they learned only married couples are placed together, though, it was Fowler-Geis that made the next move.

"I actually popped the question," she said.

The couple was married and went to Africa to volunteer in environmental education and for Ed to teach math. The first few months were challenging ones, but by the end of their time in Africa, the couple extended their time in the Peace Corps and spent a year in Panama.

"It was fulfilling to help people so impoverished," she said.

Back in the states, the couple first settled in Philadelphia, Pa., but decided that they would come back to Ed's hometown of Zanesville to raise their family.

Fowler-Geis said that she has always loved singing and that her involvement in Y-City Star will put an old demon to rest for her at last.

"Someone told me when I was young that I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket and I set out to prove them wrong by becoming the best singer I could be," she said.

Fowler-Geis was with a small band during college and has sung in choirs, honing her performing skills. She will perform Dusty Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man" for the Y-City Star semi-finals, feeling that her lower range lends itself well to music with a rock edge.

Winning Y-City Star, Fowler-Geis said she would take satisfaction proving herself as a singer and take her family to a nice dinner out and donate some of her prize money to her church's mission to assist those affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Originally published July 14, 2006

When this story was posted in July 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:




Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers

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The Peace Corps Library The Peace Corps Library is now available online with over 40,000 index entries in 500 categories. Looking for a Returned Volunteer? Check our RPCV Directory. New: Sign up to receive PCOL Magazine, our free Monthly Magazine by email. Like to keep up with Peace Corps news as it happens? Sign up to recieve a daily summary of Peace Corps stories from around the world.

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