"I wanted to pursue community development work, and the program at Western seemed to be, out of all the graduate schools I pursued, the best. It offered the best choices in what I wanted to do, plus I really wanted to pursue a master's degree in RPTA, so the coupling of the two really sealed the deal for me." Wade is a native of Louisville, Ky., and as a teen, she began participating in neighborhood clean-up days and also volunteered at a hospital in Louisville. She continued this practice through her undergraduate years at the University of Kentucky in Louisville, when she graduated with a degree in dietetics in 1998. "I worked as a dietician before in the health care field, and that's initially what I did in the Peace Corps," Wade said. From 2004 to 2006 she served in the Peace Corps in Suriname, a small country just north of Brazil in South America. She worked at a new health care clinic in a small rural town. Wade witnessed the importance of the new clinic and watched as it became a major development for the area. Jobs were provided for the residents, more people began to travel to the area in search of better health care and all the while, an interest in community development sparked within Wade.
Suriname RPCV Jessica Wade is pursuing community development work in the Peace Corps Fellows Program
Student interns for peace
Yazmin Ramos
Issue date: 11/2/09 Section: News
Graduate student Jessica Wade is pursuing community development work in the Peace Corps Fellows Program.
Graduate student Jessica Wade is pursuing community development work in the Peace Corps Fellows Program.
Two months down and nine more to go for Jessica Wade, recreation, park and tourism administration graduate student, who is currently on an 11-month internship in Carthage, Ill.
The internship is through the AmeriCorps Peace Corps Fellows program, a program that has commonly drawn Peace Corps volunteers to pursue a master's degree at Western Illinois University.
"I came to Western Illinois University because of the Peace Corps Fellows Program in community development," Wade said.
"I wanted to pursue community development work, and the program at Western seemed to be, out of all the graduate schools I pursued, the best. It offered the best choices in what I wanted to do, plus I really wanted to pursue a master's degree in RPTA, so the coupling of the two really sealed the deal for me."
Wade is a native of Louisville, Ky., and as a teen, she began participating in neighborhood clean-up days and also volunteered at a hospital in Louisville. She continued this practice through her undergraduate years at the University of Kentucky in Louisville, when she graduated with a degree in dietetics in 1998.
"I worked as a dietician before in the health care field, and that's initially what I did in the Peace Corps," Wade said.
From 2004 to 2006 she served in the Peace Corps in Suriname, a small country just north of Brazil in South America. She worked at a new health care clinic in a small rural town. Wade witnessed the importance of the new clinic and watched as it became a major development for the area. Jobs were provided for the residents, more people began to travel to the area in search of better health care and all the while, an interest in community development sparked within Wade. ? ?
The Illinois Institute of Rural Affairs sponsored the Peace Corps Fellows Program in community development on Western's campus. The Fellows Program is designed for people who have completed at least two years of Peace Corps service and are looking to return to the United States to pursue a master's degree.
"The program identifies the internship for me. My program director identifies possible internships for everyone in the program. This internship that I'm doing (in Carthage) is unique to the Peace Corps Fellows Program at WIU with the IIRA," Wade said. "The way that it is set up is year one you take all of your required classes and you have a graduate assistantship. Year two you get to do an 11-month internship and that 11-month internship is technically an AmeriCorps position." ? ?
Aside from the two days a week Wade travels to Macomb for classes, her days with the internship typically start bright and early in the office at 8 a.m.
"I have been ironing out a work plan that I will be doing, identifying challenges, doing an outreach. I've been in a lot of meetings with everybody in different entities in the community: the school, the health department, the library," Wade said.
Speaking with people from the community allows her to get first-hand experience on what resources are available in the area and helps her to identify how and in what ways advancing development and improving these resources could benefit the entire community.
Internet research and community outreach play key roles in fulfilling her duties as an intern. Wade's experience in Suriname during her time in the Peace Corps and her exposure to multiple ethnic languages and ethnic communities has deemed as a necessary and positive acquired trait for her current internship position.
"I'm working with the community development committee, and I've recently been facing the challenges of dealing with non-English speaking workers coming to town," Wade said. "There are a lot of swine farms in the area, and there have been a lot of non-native English speakers working on those.
The town really wanted someone to help facilitate integration for these people and make it a two-way integration, meaning make it easier for the people who are new to Carthage to integrate into the community and to make it easier for businesses and community services to be able to work with the people," Wade added.
Most of the non-English speakers speak Spanish. Wade did not study Spanish during her undergraduate years in college. Instead, she studies the language independently.
"I've identified some needs of the non-English community and I've been able to direct them to places," Wade said. "I've been able to coordinate some things, but I did find some challenges. Hopefully I'm on the path toward solving them."?
The encounters with community development have provided Wade with beneficial experience. As time continues to press forward in the internship, Wade will continue to develop more projects.
"I'll be working on a tourism piece here in Carthage which ties in directly with the community development program." Wade said "(It's) hands-on experience that I may not be able to get in another internship."
