Peace Corps attracts grads

Max Rappoport doesn’t have any definite plans after he graduates from Pitt at the end of the… Max Rappoport doesn’t have any definite plans after he graduates from Pitt at the end of the month. He may go to graduate school or he may move to California, but one thing is certain: He is going to join the Peace Corps, and if not now, then in five or 10 years.

“I think it’s a great opportunity to help people in need,” said Rappoport, who currently volunteers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “And it’s really suitable for people our age.”

Rappoport, a senior psychology major, is just one of many Pitt students who want to do service or non-profit work before getting a job in the corporate world.

Barbara Juliussen, an associate director at Career Services, said that most students are looking for jobs in the profit sector, but people who do search for service opportunities usually have an underlying passion and motivation to help others.

“You can get amazing experiences building skills that you could take to profit companies later on,” Juliussen said.

She said that popular service organizations are the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps and Teach For America.

Participants of Teach For America are placed in urban and rural school districts around the country where they will teach classes for two years before receiving their teaching certification, Juliussen said.

Although Teach for America is one of the most competitive programs on campus – Juliussen said that she sees one out of 25 students who apply make the program – it is popular among students because it allows them to earn their teacher certification without going to graduate school.

AmeriCorps is another popular service program for people ages 18 to 24, according to their Web site. Members of the program will complete 1,700 hours of community service in the United States in areas of public safety, homeland security and disaster relief, among others.

“These people are motivated to contribute to society,” Juliussen said.

Another non-profit organizations that Juliussen mentioned was the Public Allies, a national AmeriCorps program that aims help communities for a ten-month duration.

But one of the most popular service programs, at least for Pitt alumnus, is the Peace Corps. According to Alison Tweedie, a Peace Corps campus recruiter at Pitt, 52 Pitt graduates are currently serving in the program, making this the highest number of participants in Pennsylvania.

The Peace Corps volunteers work for two years in countries in South America, Asia, Europe and Africa. They help out with governments and school districts and tackle issues in education, health, environment and HIV/AIDS areas.

“Generally, most people are very excited and you can tell,” Tweedie said.

For Rappoport, leaving his friends and family members, as well as the possibilities of contracting a disease or becoming a victim of civil war violence is keeping him from joining the program immediately.

“Between the amount of time and the risk factors, it’s hard to just up and apply,” Rappoport said. “It’s definitely good to do it now though, when you don’t have a job or a family.”

But his reasons for why he would do the program outweigh the risks: the reward of helping others, giving back to people who don’t have as much as he does and gaining valuable experience.

“The experience is something intense, and other things wouldn’t seem as hard to accomplish,” Rappoport said. “It gives you a motivation.”