"A fine evening with my students and Sylvia Mendez
at UGA (I'm in the middle)." 

Volunteering with the Peace Corps

By Erin Thompson* (Oct, 2010)

 Last September, HSF announced our partnership with the Peace Corps to help recruit the next generation of Peace Corps volunteers and highlight the career and volunteer opportunities that are available through Peace Corps. To learn more about this news click here.

Learn how an HSF college student’s life was shaped by the Peace Corps:
"My time as a community health volunteer in rural Guatemala gave me a perspective on the world that no textbook or lecture hall ever could. Living for the first time in my life as a minority, experiencing judgment for who I was and who I was perceived to be, and witnessing first-hand the decisions that a life of abject poverty can force a person to make- all of these things shaped the person I am and were invaluable lessons that continue to guide me in my life and work even now. I know that I am a better advocate for my students, a better leader in my community, and a better neighbor to those around me because I had the opportunity to walk awhile in different shoes down an unfamiliar path. Without question it is the thing I am most proud of in my life to this point, and I can honestly say that I would not be doing what I do today had I not served as a Peace Corps volunteer."

*Erin Thompson is the Campus Manager for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF) University Alliance at the University of Georgia (UGA). In this role she supports current HSF scholars on campus, recruits potential new scholars, and collaborates with a variety of UGA offices and departments to promote increased outreach, recruitment, and retention of Latino students. Erin previously worked with the Office of Migrant Education and later as coordinator of the Even Start Family Literacy Program in Athens, GA. Within the community, Erin sits on the boards of both the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia and the Junior League of Athens. She also serves on the Research & Development Committee of the Athens educational non-profit “Whatever It Takes,” who recently received one of only 21 national Promise Neighborhoods planning grants from the U.S. Department of Education. In her free time Erin plays soccer, enjoys photography, and is the proud mentor of a Latina who is the first in her family to attend college. Erin received her B.S. in Journalism from Boston University and spent two and half years in Guatemala as a Peace Corps Volunteer.