David Rosenberg in Jordan
Road to understanding
By Sarah Slakey/Enterprise correspondent
Davis is full of world-class people, including four UC Davis graduate students - Sean Smukler, Brandon Kitagawa, David Rosenberg and Jules Keane - who volunteered their time in the Peace Corps.
"I joined the Peace Corps because I was pretty sold on their mission," said Smukler, a Peace Corps volunteer between 1997 and 1999. "I wanted to help a community with new ideas and energy, and to experience another culture by living in a community and speaking their language. There's no other volunteer organization that's quite like it."
Since the Peace Corps began under the Kennedy administration in 1961, some 1,170 UCD graduates have served the two-year commitment in a foreign country.
In 2000, UCD Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef formalized an agreement with the Peace Corps to create four new master's degrees in international programs. In the new programs, Peace Corps volunteers may choose to study horticulture and agronomy, soil science, plant biology or preventive veterinary medicine, get two years of field experience in the Peace Corps, then return to finish their degree for a final quarter.
Last year alone, more than 55 UCD graduates became Peace Corps volunteers, making it the 20th most volunteer-producing university in the nation. This year there are 46 former Aggies serving abroad.
[Excerpt]
A Jew in Jordan
Rosenberg had a emotional learning experience, having to lie about his Jewish heritage during his three-and-a-half-year experience in Jordan.
Under the Peace Corps' recommendation, Rosenberg denied his heritage to avoid prejudice, especially during the initial introductory phase. Although it was an attempt to make himself more integrated in the community, Rosenberg said that it made him feel more removed.
"It was as if I was part of a community, but at the same time I wasn't. I was denying part of who I was. I always thought about it," Rosenberg said. "For me it was one of the most difficult things. I never resolved the issue the whole time I was there."
Now a graduate student at UCD, Rosenberg worked as a researcher and educator for the Royal Society Conservation on Nature. Although he learned a great deal alongside a team of professionals and local counterparts while working on a water conservation and composting project, Rosenberg said he learned much more about the world and being an American during his time in the Peace Corps.
"My global perspective completely changed. Living outside of the United States, hearing and listening to what people think about us," he said. "I learned a lot more about being an American, what I value and what I dislike about being a citizen in this country."
