Leslie and I are currently in Beaverton, Oregon, waiting to depart for Fiji with the U.S. Peace Corps. We have accepted an invitation to serve in the Integrated Environmental Resources Management project. We have no idea where in Fiji we will be working, or what exactly we will be doing. We hope to use this blog throughout our assignment as a way of keeping in touch with family and friends back home.
I'll use this first posting to give a bit of background information about ourselves. Leslie and I both graduated in 2004 from the University of Dallas. Leslie's major was painting, mine was biology. After finishing undergrad, Leslie went on to get her MBA from the University of Dallas, while I am just now finishing my Master's Degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences from Texas A&M University. Leslie has also spent the past three years working for the American Heart Association in Dallas.
If anyone is considering joining the Peace Corps and would like to know more about it, feel free to send us a message. At this point, we really can't say much about what Peace Corps service is like, but we can answer questions about the application process. My advice to anyone considering Peace Corps service is to begin the application about a year before you will actually be available to leave. The application takes a very long time. It involves interviews, many many written personal statements, and a thorough medical screening.
At this point, the days are going by very quickly for us as our time in the U.S. is coming to a close. On May 18th we fly to Los Angeles for staging, and on May 19th we fly to Fiji. We have an 11 hour layover in Auckland, New Zealand on our way to Fiji, so hopefully we will have some time to see a bit of the city. Once we arrive in Fiji we will begin training. We will not officially become Peace Corps volunteers until late July when we complete our training. We will do our best to keep this blog up to date. Since we are sharing this blog, some of the posts will be from me (John) and some will be from Leslie.
About Us
- Leslie and John in Fiji
- Leslie was born on the small island of Kodiak in Alaska but grew up in Silverton, Oregon. John was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. We met while attending the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas. At University Leslie studied fine art while John studied biology. We met in Human Figure Drawing class....amid naked tooshies...oh my! Leslie continued her education at UD, receiving an MBA in Non-Profit Management. John sought greener pastures at Texas A&M. Instead of green pastures John got the brown fields of "Brownfield" Texas where he researched the Lesser Prarie Chicken. John graduated with his Masters in Wildlife Biology in May of 2008. We were married on July 20th, 2007. Looking for a true adventure we accepted an assignment to serve in the United States Peace Corps as Environmental Volunteers. We currently live in rural Viti Levu, Fiji.
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