They say it’s the hardest job in the world, but they’d do it again in a second.The Peace Corps volunteers’ experiences have changed throughout the years, but four Peace Corps veterans agree their participation offered them a new view of humanity.Michael Koubi said he measured his success as a youth development volunteer by the number of smiles and hugs he received from the at-risk youth with whom he worked in Zavet, Bulgaria.”I was a big brother character,” said Koubi, 2004 history and German alumnus. “My job was to say, ‘Yes, we can go out and play.'”Koubi said he worked in a reformatory for neglected Roma or Gypsy children.”We were trying to affect social change, working with Roma kids to give them opportunities in the future and helping to eliminate interethnic distrust,” he said.PEACE CORPSAn average of 10 LSU alumni apply to the Peace Corps each year, but other universities of the same size have twice that amount, said Curt Baker, Peace Corps regional recruiter. Nineteen University alumni currently serve in the Peace Corps, Baker said in an e-mail to The Daily Reveille. A total of 225 University alumni have served since the program’s start.The Peace Corps began in 1961 after Sen. John F. Kennedy urged University of Michigan students to seek the cause of peace by living and working in developing countries.Nearly 200,000 Peace Corps volunteers have served in 139 countries, according to the Peace Corps Web site.Africa requests the most volunteers, followed by Latin America, Baker said.IN THE FIELDAmanda Pitcock, 2008 anthropology alumna, is finishing her 27-month Peace Corps service as an English teacher in Kyrgyzstan. “Living here was difficult at first because of the lack of amenities we are used to in America,” Pitcock said in an e-mail to The Daily Reveille. But adjusting to the lack of luxury in Kyrgyzstan was easier than adjusting to the culture, Pitcock said.”The people in my village basically think I’m the crazy American who is too old to get married and doesn’t eat very much sheep fat, considered a delicacy here,” she said.Despite the peace she describes in her village, turmoil struck Kyrgyzstan when the government was overthrown, she said.Pitcock said she was evacuated to a safe part of the country and is currently making her way back to her village.PAST EXPERIENCES”Peace Corps shows the good face of America,” said Ned Shapiro, a motion picture location manager who lives in Los Angeles.Shapiro served as a volunteer in Kenya from January 1967 to December 1968. He lived with the Luo tribe, one of 42 tribes in Kenya, and worked on a sugar cane plantation.”This was not a typical Peace Corps program,” he said. “I thought I was going to help farmers grow crop and be a teacher.”Shapiro said Kenya hasn’t changed much from his service there more than 40 years ago, but he knows the experiences he shared with the people did help in a small way.”The Luo name their children after people they admire,” he said. “I was told when a baby was born, he was named Shapiro.”HOW IT WORKSBaker said Peace Corps pays for volunteers’ flights into countries of service and back home when their service ends.”While you’re there, you get a monthly living allowance,” he said. “That allowance will cover food, housing and transportation.”Koubi said volunteers cannot live like tourists because they’re given only enough money to live comfortably.Volunteers also receive a readjustment allowance to help them transition back into American life when they return from service, Baker said.The readjustment fund increased from $6,075 to a little less than $7,500 this month, Baker said.Koubi said Peace Corps isn’t for everyone.”It’s the hardest job you’ll ever love,” he said. “You have to be ready to step out of your comfort zone to affect change.” THE FUTUREBaker said applications to Peace Corps have increased because of the recession and lack of available jobs.”We recruit just over 4,000 volunteers each year, so we can have about 8,000 volunteers in the field at a time,” Baker said. “To be competitive in the future job market, you’re going to have to have those international skills.”Allie Solomon, psychology senior, applied for Peace Corps after trying to choose between graduate school and a job. Solomon said helping people in Peace Corps will help her decide what she wants to do professionally.Shapiro said his experience in the Peace Corps helped him in his career as a location manager. “Part of my job is meeting new people in new cultural situations,” he said. Baker will hold a Peace Corps information session Wednesday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Tchoupitoulas Room in the LSU Student Union.–Contact Mary Walker Baus at [email protected]