It was the tail-end of my senior year in 2000 when I received the invitation to join the Corps as a health sanitation volunteer in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Less than a decade prior to my graduation, I was a refugee from Vietnam residing in the Philippines, so when the Peace Corps offered an opportunity to serve and represent my newly adopted country, I took the chance without hesitation. I wanted to explore the world, gain new experiences, and serve a disadvantaged community, but I didn’t know how transformative my experiences in the Corps would truly be.

During my first two years in the Corps, I worked in a village clinic where I educated the community about various regionally-impactful parasites and diseases and learned how to connect with strangers, live as a minimalist, appreciate life, and deal with hardship and ambiguity.

When those two years were up, I was given another chance to serve in the Corps, this time in Chad as an English teacher where I taught 400 students each day and coached a soccer team on the weekends. Even though I was busy during that time, I managed to travel through over 17 African countries as a backpacker during which I learned and told many stories.

Looking back, joining the Peace Corps was one of the best decisions for me because I achieved my goals of serving a disadvantaged community, representing my country and experiencing a lifetime's worth of adventures in a few short years. Even today, as a diplomat working on international security issues at the US Embassy Seoul, I believe that serving in the Peace Corps is like executing diplomacy at the grass-roots level, but without a hidden agenda.

Learn more about Lee’s story