December 10, 2021
Don Boileau, MA ’65 (SP rhetoric & public address); PhD ’72 (SP public address & speech education)
Peace Corps location: Korea
Current location: Fairfax, VA
Current position: Emeritus professor of communication, George Mason University
I joined the Peace Corps because I was inspired in part by the idealism that President Kennedy called for in his inaugural address. With one stroke of a pen President Kennedy deepened our nation’s ability to live out key values—values like service, peace, sacrifice, commitment, and learning from those we hope to serve. But I was also fundamentally opposed to the Vietnam war, which I would have soon been eligible to be drafted for. It boiled down to a question of “would I rather try to help people improve their lives or avoid destruction of property and lives by being drafted?".
My master’s degree from the UO combined with my many years coaching speech and debate teams for other regional colleges was hugely influential on my job placement once I arrived in Korea. Because my master's degree allowed me to teach at the college level, my assignment in Seoul was at an administrative school to train upper-level civil servants. My job site wanted to have an American professor, so my work at Oregon gave me the credentials to be a college instructor at Central Officials Training Institute.
But it was growing up in the Coos Bay area that truly gave me the skills I needed to serve the people of Korea. In the evenings, I taught English to the Director of the Department of Forestry. Since I had worked at Weyerhaeuser for three summers while attending college, I knew of the work Weyerhaeuser had done growing trees and was soon teaching with many of their specialized materials about growing forests. Thus, my students had the context of the words I was teaching from the wonderful pictures these materials offered. This greatly improved my ability to give back to the community in Korea where during my second year serving I taught English to the committee in charge of ports, fisheries, and docks. They had a problem with cranes in the port of Inchon falling into the bay especially during times of low tides. Their logs were coming from Indonesia as the war and subsequent lack of fuel had denuded most of their forest areas. Again, my work allowed me to teach them how Weyerhaeuser handled the logs bringing them from the tidal waters of Coos Bay up to the log deck.
Like most volunteers in the sixties, I went to help others, only to learn that I was the big winner by what I learned from the Koreans. My experiences there changed me completely; learning about Korean history taught me to participate less in black-and-white thinking, and living with a host family taught me about the importance of valuing one’s family, being patient, and how to be less of a picky eater. And I was able to give back to my Korean family, as well, by helping their youngest daughter travel to the US and live with my parents during her preparation for graduate work.
One typically joins the Peace Corps for the unique experiences one has that cannot be found in the usual college classroom. It is the greatest internship at the expense of the US government. For those worried about losing two and half years, you will find a life-long change in your international perspective as well as your human perspective about the "other."
Read more about Boileau’s story
My master’s degree from the UO combined with my many years coaching speech and debate teams for other regional colleges was hugely influential on my job placement once I arrived in Korea. Because my master's degree allowed me to teach at the college level, my assignment in Seoul was at an administrative school to train upper-level civil servants. My job site wanted to have an American professor, so my work at Oregon gave me the credentials to be a college instructor at Central Officials Training Institute.
But it was growing up in the Coos Bay area that truly gave me the skills I needed to serve the people of Korea. In the evenings, I taught English to the Director of the Department of Forestry. Since I had worked at Weyerhaeuser for three summers while attending college, I knew of the work Weyerhaeuser had done growing trees and was soon teaching with many of their specialized materials about growing forests. Thus, my students had the context of the words I was teaching from the wonderful pictures these materials offered. This greatly improved my ability to give back to the community in Korea where during my second year serving I taught English to the committee in charge of ports, fisheries, and docks. They had a problem with cranes in the port of Inchon falling into the bay especially during times of low tides. Their logs were coming from Indonesia as the war and subsequent lack of fuel had denuded most of their forest areas. Again, my work allowed me to teach them how Weyerhaeuser handled the logs bringing them from the tidal waters of Coos Bay up to the log deck.
Like most volunteers in the sixties, I went to help others, only to learn that I was the big winner by what I learned from the Koreans. My experiences there changed me completely; learning about Korean history taught me to participate less in black-and-white thinking, and living with a host family taught me about the importance of valuing one’s family, being patient, and how to be less of a picky eater. And I was able to give back to my Korean family, as well, by helping their youngest daughter travel to the US and live with my parents during her preparation for graduate work.
One typically joins the Peace Corps for the unique experiences one has that cannot be found in the usual college classroom. It is the greatest internship at the expense of the US government. For those worried about losing two and half years, you will find a life-long change in your international perspective as well as your human perspective about the "other."
Read more about Boileau’s story
