As an undergraduate majoring in health studies and minoring in gender & sexuality studies, Julia Brittain also volunteered as an EMT and worked at the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement. She wanted to continue giving back after graduating in May 2023 and left for Zambia with the Peace Corps that August. She returned to her home in Pacific Palisades, California, two years later.

“Global health has been something I have been passionate about for a long time, especially after studying abroad in Kenya,” Brittain said. “I was interested in working in other countries to address some of the same global health issues that I had seen there.”

Brittain worked in a rural village in Zambia, during her 22-month engagement with the Community Health Empowerment Project. She trained local volunteers in safe motherhood practices, childhood nutrition, malaria and cholera prevention, and improving their skills in evaluating child growth.

She helped build health outreach shelters, where vaccinations and prenatal care could be provided. Sometimes her work meant spending all day moving bricks and helping to plaster or paint the shelters. “It was not exactly glamorous work, but there were always people ready to lend a hand,” she said.

Brittain lived with a host family. She enjoyed being involved with the community and learning about another way of life.

“To be stripped of your creature comforts like running water and electricity seems extreme at first, and you're not sure how you'll survive,” Brittain said. “But then you live in a village for a few years, and it starts to feel normal to have to pump your water from your borehole and start a fire every day to heat it up for a bucket bath or to cook on.”

This year, Brittain will be continuing her studies at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.

Teaching English in Ethiopia

When Matthew Logan graduated with a double major in leadership studies and psychology, and a minor in physics, he wasn’t sure which direction he wanted to take his career path.

“Volunteering, service, and education were at the heart of my academic experience through Jepson. After loving my study abroad experience, the Peace Corps felt like a natural next step,” Logan said.

His assignment took him to Ethiopia as an education volunteer from summer 2016 through fall 2018. 

“My primary objective was to teach English in a very rural high school, though I took on a number of secondary projects like writing a grant for a new computer lab at the school, running a gender equality camp, and facilitating teacher trainings,” he said. Logan also served as a tutor at the African Union, an organization representing various African countries that collaborate on political and economic development across the continent.

He couldn’t surf the internet or watch movies because his quarters lacked electricity, so, he bought a guitar early in his service to occupy his downtime.

“It became a central part of my experience, not only because it invited community members in my village to play and sing alongside me, but I ended up writing and recording a small EP with another volunteer,” Logan said. “We sold the EP online and raised $1,000 to help fund other Peace Corps grant initiatives.”

Today, Logan works in Austin, Texas, as an account executive at the AI app-building platform Airtable, where he leads sales strategy for education clients.