Why are you going into the Peace Corps?
This is the biggest question I get when I tell people that I will be volunteering in the Peace Corps. There was no exact moment but rather an accumulation of experiences, lots of thinking, reasoning, and ultimately trusting my gut. Let me do my best to share my perspective and how I came to this choice.
I learned about the Peace Corps in high school. One day I came across an Instagram post about a woman flying to an African country to be a volunteer in the Peace Corps. I looked at the Peace Corps website and got a small understanding of the organization - live abroad for two years and volunteer with local communities. After that, the Peace Corps stayed in the back of my head, never a topic of conversation or big focus for the rest of high school and into college.
Even though I did not consciously think of the Peace Corps for the next eight years, the ideals I learned stayed strongly within me: to learn a new culture, language, integrate with communities, and help others.
If you want the short version, here it is:
Otherwise, here is the long version:
My family is very active. I grew up hiking, biking, climbing, running, skiing - anything outside we do at our max capacity. At a young age, I fell in love with sports, one of them being swimming.
Swimming has been at the forefront of my mind since I was ten years old. I learned to swim in a hot tub at a local hotel; the pool was too cold for me, even with a wetsuit. My older sister, Ashley, joined the local swim team and I followed suit. I made many friends on the team, always arriving to practice early so we could run around the rec center to play games and then jump in the pool. Growing up, I loved to play all sports such as soccer, basketball, and karate. Around 11 years old, I committed to swimming and stopped the other sports. What I loved about swimming was that it was me and the water, nothing else. I gained traction in the sport, traveling outside of Colorado to compete at swim meets in California, Oregon, and Arizona. In high school, I started looking at colleges to continue to swim on an athletic scholarship.
I was set on going to college in California, primarily interested in UCLA and USC. I thought the beach life would be a good fit for me. Boy, was I wrong. In the summer of 2018, I went to a swim meet in Santa Clara, CA where I came across the University of Wisconsin - Madison’s swim team. I had recently seen news that there was a new coaching staff and was curious enough to look more into the campus and city of Madison. This was the best decision I have made. Before college, I only knew Wisconsin for their cheese and the Green Bay Packers. I’m thankful to know it has so much more to offer.
I came into college undecided. So undecided that I took an art history class my first semester with my roommate Elizabeth, a fairytale class solely focused on Hans Christian Andersen stories, and a semester reading Dante’s Divine Comedy. I was torn between multiple majors - business, economics, engineering, and teaching. Growing up, I loved building things with my hands, starting with Legos and then moving up to garden beds. I got an interest in entrepreneurship because my Dad and I loved watching Shark Tank and predicting which deals would succeed. I had a great economics teacher in high school and I was fascinated with the intersection of business and psychology, learning about the effects of supply and demand on consumer decisions. Lastly, I’ve always thought of teaching in the back of my head. Throughout my entire education, I have had incredible teachers that made lasting impressions on me.
I chose engineering because that was ultimately my biggest passion. Engineering quickly taught me to ask for help, regardless of how embarrassed I felt about my question. I love stress-bonding with my classmates while making jokes about the ideal gas law, our favorite or rather least favorite dimensionless numbers, and induced bending moments on bearings. I love connecting what I learned in class to real applications in labs and internships. I also love to understand how the world works, observing the laws of physics in action and analyzing the results of variable inputs to an element.
I have been fortunate to have had two incredible engineering internship experiences; both were in manufacturing. My first internship was in Middleton, WI working on streamlining a process to assemble equipment to treat cancer. I met incredible people that guided me through the workings of supply chain, part shortages, testing, and how to present myself in a professional setting. This was a smaller team of about 15 engineers and it was a great exposure to industry. My second internship was at a bigger medical device company in Minnesota. Again, I had an amazing team and manager who really invested in me professionally and personally. I got to work on equipment in the production line, characterizing a process that measured self-expanding stents.
Last summer, I wanted to want to return as a full-time engineer so badly. I thought my internship in Minnesota was my dream job and my life was set after college. I wanted to fall in love with the Twin Cities. I wanted to be able to see myself living in Minnesota for the foreseeable future. I wanted all the pieces to fall into place… I stressed every day about what I was going to do after graduation. So stressed that I called Ashley every night asking her what I should do. Ashley knows me better than I know myself; she can tell if I’m freaking out or just checking in based on the first couple words I say. During our calls, she would mostly listen and then remind me that “you don’t have to figure this out now. Just enjoy your summer.” We had the same conversation every night, haha.
This was when the Peace Corps resurfaced to the front of my mind. Right before my internship started, my sisters and I went on a vacation to Tulum, Mexico. This was the first time I visited Mexico and I spoke Spanish in a foreign country. I love that people from different backgrounds can connect and communicate through language. While I loved the place we stayed at, I found myself conflicted with my emotions. I am very grateful for my upbringing, my family, and the town I grew up in. Yet, I’m confused with what I should do with my privilege. I often find myself wondering what to do with my life that is fulfilling.
I have learned that I get utility when I help others. I feel accomplished when I work with people towards a common goal. I enjoy bonding with people through struggles and adversity, because that’s where we reveal our true selves. While thinking of all the different possibilities, the Peace Corps was the one that checked off all the boxes I was looking for. I want to volunteer my time to help others. I want to experience a different way of living away from the one I have known my whole life. I want this challenge for myself.
I have created this website as a personal project. I have wanted to code a website for a few years and here it is. From my classes and many YouTube videos, I am primarily coding in HTML and CSS.
Come along this new journey with me! I’m excited to share my Peace Corps experience.
Cheers,
Mikayla