On June 10, Sandie Stringfellow will set out for a 27-month term of service in the Peace Corps in Kazakhstan
Harvard grad Stringfellow swaps Main Line for Peace Corps
By: Jocelyn Hanamirian 06/07/2004
Few places are more remote from the Main Line suburbs than Kazakhstan, the Central Asian country that is nearly four times the size of Texas and which features mountains, plains, oases and desert.
Just finding the terra incognita on a map is a challenge. But, Sandie Stringfellow, a 28-year-old Villanova resident, will soon be calling that region home.
On June 10, she will set out for a 27-month term of service in the Peace Corps. Her assignment, teaching English in Kazakhstan to children ages 12-17, is at once a culmination of familiar pursuits and a leap into the unknown.
"I thought by going into the Peace Corps it would combine a lot of the things I'm interested in," she said. "I like helping people. I like foreign challenges. I like being in different countries."
Despite being a seasoned traveler, Stringfellow's term in the Peace Corps will be an entirely new experience. Of the 30 countries she's visited, including Japan, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Greece, Portugal and South Korea, she has never been to Kazakhstan. Her decision to serve in an area foreign to her was purposeful. As if joining the Peace Corps was not ambitious enough, she knew that serving in a familiar region "wouldn't be as challenging," nor would she be able to count on the thrill of learning a new language.
In fact, she gets to learn two. During a three-month training period in Kazakhstan, Stringfellow will be taught the country's official language of Kazakh as well as Russian. She will also be educated in the Kazakhstani culture and in how to teach English as a foreign language.
Though Stringfellow has no teaching experience, her A.B. in psychology from Harvard University and her M.Sc. in organizational psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science will allow her to "be able to assess the assignment and projects more carefully and tailor her own teaching style and teaching materials to the assignment," said Bartel Kendrick, public affairs specialist for the Peace Corps' New York regional office.
In many ways, Stringfellow's passion for travel and interest in psychology intertwine. Describing herself as an "analytical person," she said, "It's really interesting to me to see what different people bring to a situation and to see how the situation will unfold." In much the same way, her wish to see and understand different cultures has led her to such varied travel experiences as visiting the Galapagos Islands and eating boiled silkworm larvae in Korea.
"I think when you travel, you get a better perspective of your life and the world," Stringfellow said. She believes that, even more so than her formal education, traveling has prepared her for the Peace Corps, saying, "I feel really comfortable working with all different kinds of people."
Stringfellow's professional experience is almost as varied as her travel destinations. Between Harvard and graduate school, she worked in Atlanta as a video journalist for CNN, then at a Boston consulting firm. After earning her master's degree, she worked at an investor relations agency in Los Angeles, and finally returned home to become associate director of the Upper Main Line YMCA in Berwyn.
Swimming has been a passion of hers since she began lessons at the Y at age four. She became a swim instructor there at 14, swam in high school at Baldwin, and continued the sport at Harvard. Today, she is on the masters swim team, "1776."
Jim Ryan, who coached Stringfellow from her first lesson at the Y until she was 18, and who was formerly executive director of the Upper Main Line Y, believes her choice to enter the Peace Corps is consistent with her character.
"Sandie has always been the one not to follow the same beat as everybody else. She's always been very bright, courageous and caring," he said.
While in Kazakhstan, Stringfellow will be corresponding with Baldwin School teacher Mary Beth BonGiovanni through the Corps' World Wise Schools program. The 11 students in BonGiovanni's second-grade class will receive regular letters from Stringfellow about her experiences. The exchange will be educational for both sides, as BonGiovanni plans to intergrate the program into the social-studies and language-arts curriculums. And, getting letters from American children will help the Kazakhstanis to learn more about English.
"I hope they learn the personal narrative of someone very different from them," said BonGiovanni of her aspirations for the class, "And I hope they learn the strength of this work that Sandie's doing."
Calling her classroom "strong woman headquarters," she plans to use Stringfellow as a lesson in girl power to her students. The children recently presented their "Strong Statements," a series of empowering mantras about self-respect and personal worth to Stringfellow They declaimed their advice to their visitor from atop their desk chairs.
Stringfellow's own "Strong Statement"?
"You can't be afraid in life. I think the worst feeling in life is wondering what if and not having done it. If you don't do it, you'll never know."
Jocelyn Hanamirian, who is interning at The Suburban and Wayne Times, is a senior at the Episcopal Academy.
