September 30, 2005: Headlines: COS - Ukraine: NorthJersey.com,: Joseph Maggio seeking life lessons as Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Ukraine: Peace Corps Ukraine : The Peace Corps in the Ukraine: September 30, 2005: Headlines: COS - Ukraine: NorthJersey.com,: Joseph Maggio seeking life lessons as Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine

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Joseph Maggio seeking life lessons as Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine

Joseph Maggio seeking life lessons as Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine

"I've always been interested in poverty issues," said Maggio, a 2001 graduate of Ridgefield Park Junior-Senior High School. "When I would talk to people about it, [my message] was kind of hollow. ... I thought [joining the Peace Corps] might be a springboard to learning more about the poverty."

Joseph Maggio seeking life lessons as Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine

Grad seeking life lessons in Ukraine
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Friday, September 30, 2005

By JOHN A. GAVIN
STAFF WRITER

RIDGEFIELD PARK - As a student at Fordham University in the Bronx, Joseph Maggio often did volunteer work helping those who are less fortunate.

He would leave his dorm after classes and head for POTS (Part of the Solution), a storefront soup kitchen in a hardscrabble neighborhood a few blocks away that feeds the poor and homeless.

After working in a food pantry, tutoring disadvantaged youngsters and assisting elderly residents in a Jesuit convalescent home, it's not surprising that the village resident is heading for a humanitarian mission a world away.

After graduating from college last May, Maggio has joined the Peace Corps.

He leaves today for a two-year project in Ukraine.

For as long as he can remember, Maggio, 22, who majored in sociology, has had a passion to help the underprivileged, but had trouble explaining it to others because he has never experienced poverty.

Living in a developing country and learning how to survive with the bare necessities will give him |a different perspective on life, |he said.

"I've always been interested in poverty issues," said Maggio, a 2001 graduate of Ridgefield Park Junior-Senior High School. "When I would talk to people about it, [my message] was kind of hollow. ... I thought [joining the Peace Corps] might be a springboard to learning more about the poverty."

In Ukraine, a former Soviet republic that received independence in 1991, Maggio will have the opportunity to experience what it's like to struggle financially.

He will live with a host family.

Most households in Ukraine live in large apartment buildings built during the Soviet era, dwellings that lack basic plumbing and toilet conveniences of American homes.

"Sometimes [apartment dwellers] have to schedule a time to receive running water or heat," said Melissa Garba, a recruiter in the Peace Corps office in New York, a former volunteer in the country. "Although there's running water, there are outhouses. Everyone has an outhouse."

Maggio, who's interested in a career in public service and wants to earn a master's degree in public administration, will teach English, helping Ukrainian students and teachers better grasp the language.

Although he comes from a middle-class home, growing up with his parents, Rocco and Clare, and an older sister, he said he has developed respect for those who overcame poverty and language barriers.

He said that understanding the struggles of his grandfather, who emigrated from Italy in the 1920s, helped him gain a greater appreciation for people of different backgrounds.

"I took real pride in trying to understand people that were different than me," he said. "A lot of people, who are different, don't try to understand other people."

E-mail: gavin@northjersey.com





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Story Source: NorthJersey.com,

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