Pardee School Alumn Among First to Return to Peace Corp Service After COVID Restrictions
The Peace Corps recently announced that Stephanie Hince (BA IR ’20) and Hallie Nothmann (BA IR ’22) were among the first of the Corps’ volunteers to return to overseas service since the agency’s unprecedented global evacuation in March 2020.
The Peace Corps suspended global operations and evacuated nearly 7,000 volunteers from more than 60 countries at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The returning volunteer cohorts are made up of both first-time volunteers and volunteers who were evacuated in early 2020.
“I have long been interested in foreign affairs and in being of service, so the Peace Corps was on my radar starting early in high school as an experience I wanted to pursue,” said Hince as part of the Peace Corps statement. “I want to build meaningful connections and change in collaboration with others, specifically related to the environment, and the Peace Corps will enable me to do just that.” Hince will be serving as an environment volunteer in Panama.
“The Peace Corps’s mission of ‘meeting the moment’ is what attracted me most to becoming a volunteer. I wanted to utilize my academic and experiential knowledge to facilitate global connection, community-building, and action-oriented engagement,” Nothmann said in a second agency statement. “I am eager to be part of an agency that centers host community’s voices and values human connection as a catalyst for equity and empowerment.” Nothmann will also volunteer in Panama.
Currently, the agency is recruiting volunteers to serve in 56 countries around the world at the request of host country governments, to connect through the Peace Corps’ grassroots approach across communities and cultures. Volunteers have already returned to a total of 48 countries around the world. Those interested in transformative service and lifelong connections can apply to Peace Corps service on the agency’s website; applications are due by April 1 to serve in Fall 2023.
For more stories about Pardee School alumni, visit the School’s alumni news webpage.