Language was barrier Fitzpatrick had to overcome. When she began her service, she spoke only basic Spanish. Now she’s fluent, an asset in her current job. She also struggled with loneliness and isolation and faced sexual harassment. “Every day was a challenge,” she said. Harassment and crime happen everywhere, but different cultural attitudes about women can present added challenges in some countries the Peace Corps serves, said Wayne Blackwelder, Peace Corps’ Northwest regional manager. Volunteers receive safety and sexual harassment prevention training before beginning service, and the Peace Corps has safety specialists in all countries it serves to support volunteers, he said. Volunteers also can ask to be reassigned to another site if they feel their safety is in jeopardy.
Heather Fitzpatrick spent two years in a rural Guatemalan village as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching basic hygiene, health and nutrition practices in elementary schools and offering similar health education clinics for mothers in the community
Peace Corps a natural option for many UW graduates in search of life lessons
Friday, March 28, 2008
By MARY ANN ALBRIGHT, Columbian staff writer
The University of Washington has more alumni serving in the Peace Corps than any other college or university in the country, and it seems the two are natural allies.
[Excerpt]
For Heather Fitzpatrick and Shannon Downey of Vancouver, Peace Corps offered valuable field experience attractive to future employers and brought them lasting relationships and increased self-confidence. But their service, though positive overall, wasn’t without some uncomfortable and even dangerous moments that gave them a better understanding of cultural differences.
Fitzpatrick, now a nurse in the special care nursery at Southwest Washington Medical Center, spent two years in a rural Guatemalan village as a Peace Corps volunteer. She taught basic hygiene, health and nutrition practices in elementary schools and offered similar health education clinics for mothers in the community.
Language was barrier Fitzpatrick had to overcome. When she began her service, she spoke only basic Spanish. Now she’s fluent, an asset in her current job.
She also struggled with loneliness and isolation and faced sexual harassment.
“Every day was a challenge,” she said.
Harassment and crime happen everywhere, but different cultural attitudes about women can present added challenges in some countries the Peace Corps serves, said Wayne Blackwelder, Peace Corps’ Northwest regional manager.
Volunteers receive safety and sexual harassment prevention training before beginning service, and the Peace Corps has safety specialists in all countries it serves to support volunteers, he said. Volunteers also can ask to be reassigned to another site if they feel their safety is in jeopardy.
Having fought through those obstacles, Fitzpatrick, 34, said she’s a stronger person today because of her Peace Corps service.
“I think I had a stronger sense of self and confidence and what I could do in my life” after returning home, she said. “I had a larger view of the world.”
She also has the Peace Corps to thank for helping her meet her husband, Alexander Recinos. Recinos lived near Todos Santos, the village where Fitzpatrick was stationed. He moved to the United States to be with her, and they’ve been married for more than eight years.
Peace Corps had been on Fitzpatrick’s radar since junior high, and she began her service shortly after graduating from UW. Her longtime friend Shannon Downey took a different path.
