"I had never considered taking part in a program like the Peace Corps until the fall of my junior year," Zielinski says. "During that semester, I was in New York doing fashion internships with Glamour magazine and Self magazine through the New York Arts Program. Working at Glamour magazine was my dream job for years, but what eventually bothered me enough to start questioning my plans for the future was the disparity between the environment in which I worked every day and the conditions on the street I saw walking to and from work. I adore fashion, but it came to the point where I felt that, because of my inability to reconcile this chasm I was seeing in the city, I needed to do something else before I went into it as a career.
Linnea V. Zielinski is heading abroad for service in the Peace Corps in Ukraine
Jessica Howard '09 and Linnea Zielinski '09
Jessica L. Howard and Linnea V. Zielinski are two members of the recently graduated Class of 2009 heading abroad for service in the Peace Corps. Their two-year assignments will be spent in Kazakhstan and Ukraine, respectively, on trips that they look forward to as part of their ongoing education.
Zielinski was originally assigned to Western Africa until what she describes as a "gauntlet of medical exams" discovered an enzyme deficiency, preventing her from taking the malaria medication necessary to serve in the region. She was offered a choice between Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and she opted for the former because of her academic interests. "Either region sparked interest for me," she explains. "The only deciding factor was that, as a literature major, I may eventually decide to attend graduate school for comparative literature. Picking up either Russian or Ukrainian will help me incorporate my interest in Russian authors into my literature studies."
Zielinski has been studying Ukrainian since DePauw's May commencement and just recently finished a TEFL course to prepare her for her teaching assignment in a Ukrainian secondary school.
"It's flattering and daunting to know that I'll be considered an expert in my classroom," Zielinksi says. "The thing I may be most excited about is being part of the learning process in my classroom. My students and I will be going through the same process in two different languages. Hopefully, a unique environment can be formed in my classroom in which it's recognized that the teaching and learning is going both ways."
Unlike Howard, Zielinski says that her decision to join the Peace Corps is the result a recent and unlikely revelation.
"I had never considered taking part in a program like the Peace Corps until the fall of my junior year," Zielinski says. "During that semester, I was in New York doing fashion internships with Glamour magazine and Self magazine through the New York Arts Program. Working at Glamour magazine was my dream job for years, but what eventually bothered me enough to start questioning my plans for the future was the disparity between the environment in which I worked every day and the conditions on the street I saw walking to and from work. I adore fashion, but it came to the point where I felt that, because of my inability to reconcile this chasm I was seeing in the city, I needed to do something else before I went into it as a career.
"Toward the end of the semester, all the fashion interns at Glamour had the opportunity to work Glamour's Women of the Year event where the magazine recognizes outstanding women and their impact on society. Victoria Hale, CEO of the Institute of OneWorld Health, gave a speech that night in which she said to the girls' school students who were invited to attend, ‘You know you're going to live for 100 years, don't you? What are you going to do with that?' It sounds cliché, but that solidified for me that there was no reason to pass on the opportunity to volunteer my time to an organization like the Peace Corps. After all, when you have that much time, what's 27 months?"
Upon completion of their terms abroad, Howard and Zielinski will join a prestigious group of Peace Corps alumni that includes United States Senator Christopher Dodd; Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix; and Priscilla Wrubel, founder of The Nature Company.
Zielinski plans to blog her time in Ukraine. Follow her experiences at linneasadventures.wordpress.com.
