Boston University School of Public Health

To Apply

You must meet the application criteria and separately apply to both the BUSPH MPH program and US Peace Corps. Relevant experience in some field of health is helpful, but not required. On acceptance by both institutions you may participate in the MI program; should only one offer you acceptance, you are welcome to pursue that opportunity.

NOTE: If you have already been nominated to Peace Corps and wish to participate in the MI program, you should wait to complete Peace Corps's Dental clearance until 9 months prior to your departure for Peace Corps service, as this clearance is only good for approximately one year. On the otherhand, the Medical and Legal clearance is good for two years--so plan accordingly!

• MPH Program in International Health
  

The best way to find out what serving in the Peace Corps is like, is to talk to those that have served. You can also read what they are writing about it. Or check out the "A day in the life of... stories." Several BUSPH Master Internationalists have modern approaches to keeping friends and family up-to-date, in that they post regular accounts of their experiences on weblogs, linked below.

RPCV Kevin Fiori, MPH Alum (Epidemiology concentrator) served in Kara, Togo, with AED (Association Espoir pour Demain), which is comprised of and serves HIV+ clients with supportive services. He founded Hope Through Health to help support their efforts.

Many people in international development work get their first job in the field by serving in Peace Corps. In fact, BUSPH's Department of International Health includes a number of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs). IH Professor and RPCV Taryn Vian presents a retrospective account on the value of serving in the Peace Corps, "Something About Peace Corps," below.

• Jessica in Botswana
  
• Joel in Honduras
• BU & Peace Corps
• Christina in Uganda

Something About Peace Corps
by Taryn Vian

My job as a Peace Corps Volunteer was the best experience in my life. I felt enormously challenged by having to learn so much. People's values were different, their history was different, the way they lived was different. I was constantly sifting through all these differences to see what it meant for me. Did I need to accept the differences? Did I need to change myself and embrace those values and beliefs, to fit in? Could I "judge" and decide that I liked some things, didn't like others? When would I be able to judge; how much do you have to know and experience to be able to judge?

Those challenges of learning, and learning how to analyze and make decisions about acceptance, likes and dislikes, tolerance--it was so fulfilling when I started to feel like I understood. I had never had a challenge like that before, and I doubt I'll ever have one again, because we tend to live with so little diversity in our lives. We seek out--or even if we don't seek out, we end up with--neighbors, schools, employers, communities with shared values and beliefs, because that is comfortable and sustaining. Yet the challenge of not having those things to share, and then creating them or trying to understand the "why" of not sharing, that was truly something special.

I loved the environment in Cameroon because it was so different. I can remember the heavy heat, the thick air, the lush vegetation. I remember the smell of palm oil cooking, how the slippery, muddy, rutted roads looked after a storm, the keening of women and beating of drums to call villagers together for a meeting. I loved the parties and dancing, the rituals like "opening the dance floor" with a speech and one minute of dancing by the most important guests, filling your plate again and again from the buffet table (very impolite not to try everything), the babies tied to people's backs and dancing along with the adults. So many memories and stories.

When I came home from Peace Corps, people asked me how I was able to "integrate" my experience in Peace Corps with the rest of my life. The answer was: I didn't have to. There really was no way to integrate those experiences, the worlds were just so completely separate. So I picked up my life from the U.S. and went on; got another degree, worked at different jobs, married and started a family.

Yet, as the years go by I see that some things I have been able to integrate. I learned to trust that other cultures have come by their beliefs for a reason, and that given enough time living in another culture I will come to see those reasons and accept them (or at least some of them)--I won't learn to accept them just from reading a book or talking. I've learned to listen more, and to be patient with myself and others--that some things just come from living and you can't figure it out any more quickly than just by being there. And that's ok.