In the Spring of 1963, a classmate invited me to attend with him a Peace Corps recruiting event on campus. I went, was inspired, and immediately submitted an application afterwards. I had never been far from the Eugene-Springfield area but knew there was a wider world out there and wanted to see some of it.

Following my graduation, I was assigned to be a teacher at an all-boys school in Nepal where I used much of my education earned at the UO as a math and science major to supplement my teaching methods. What that led to, was an almost 30-year career in Foreign Service. Being an Oregonian born and bred, had someone asked me before going to Nepal if I might be interested in a Foreign Service career, I probably would have replied, "Did you mean the Forest Service?" In Nepal, on the other hand, both our ambassador and his deputy were very active in encouraging volunteers to consider Foreign Service careers.

However, during my service, I frequently had doubts that I was making much of an impact at all. After I left at the end of my tour, it would be 17 years before I returned, this time as the Director of the India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka Affairs Office in the US Department of State. What I found was that many former students of Corps volunteers, including some of my own, were now at middle levels in the Nepali government bureaucracy and were leading change agents, something that had been almost impossible to find in the bureaucracy almost two decades prior. Seeing that growth was amazing and cemented, for me, the impact the Peace Corps can have on the lives of the individuals that they serve.

Editor’s Note: Tomseth is a former American diplomat and US Ambassador (1993–1996) to Laos. He was Deputy Chief of Mission in Tehran, Iran, and was among the Americans taken hostage by the Iranians from 1979 to 1981. Learn more about his story.