Morgan Shetler knew she wanted to join the Peace Corps from the moment she started hearing her parents’ stories.
Her mom and dad, Machaelle and Jesse Shetler, volunteered as teachers in the Polynesian Kingdom of Tonga in the early 1990s.
“I grew up hearing all of the stories and experiences that my parents had, and it was always just something … that I wanted to add to my bucket list,” Morgan Shetler said.
Now she’s doing it.
The 26-year-old from Wichita is among the first Peace Corps volunteers to return to overseas service since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In March 2020, the agency suspended its global operations and evacuated nearly 7,000 volunteers from more than 60 countries. Now, the Peace Corps is asking volunteers to return and is recruiting new ones.
“We’re trying to be very careful and selective and making sure that the countries are ready for the volunteers,” said Peace Corps spokeswoman Diana Calloway. “It is a slow rebuild, but … we are moving at a pace to ensure everyone’s health and safety.”
Because her parents served in the Peace Corps, Morgan Shetler is known as a “legacy volunteer.” She used some of her down time during the early days of the pandemic to research and write essays for her Peace Corps application.
She recently traveled to the Kingdom of Eswatini in southern Africa — the country formerly known as Swaziland — to begin three months of training and then two years of service. She’ll work with children and teens and help lead an HIV prevention program.
“This has always been a dream of mine, to meet new people and to learn a new language, and to … gain a wider perspective of the world,” she said.
Established by President John F. Kennedy, the Peace Corps is an international service network. At the invitation of governments around the world, Peace Corps volunteers work alongside community members on local projects in the areas of education, health, agriculture, environment and economic development.
“The willingness of all Americans — men and women, young and old — to serve in the Peace Corps … is one of the most encouraging manifestations of the American spirit,” Kennedy said in 1961.
Since its start, more than 240,000 people have served in 142 countries.
But COVID affected recruitment, said Calloway, the Peace Corps spokeswoman. When the agency evacuated volunteers, nearly 50 of them were from Kansas; now there are only seven, with about a dozen more in the application or onboarding process.
“We’re hoping to get those numbers back up,” Calloway said. People who apply by April 1 could begin their global assignments this fall, she said.
Morgan Shetler said she knew nothing about Eswatini when she got her assignment but researched online and through social media.
“I know that they are a monarchy, which is super interesting,” she said. “It’s a super teeny-tiny country. I Googled a bunch of people on TikTok and stuff like that. It’s a rich culture, and I’m very excited to be a part of that.”
During her first three months in the country, she’ll learn about the language and culture. After that, she’ll be placed with a local family. She said the past few weeks have been hectic.
“Trying to figure out how I’m going to fit everything on the packing list into two 50-pound bags,” she said, laughing. “It’s an incredibly fast whirlwind. It’s been insane.”
Unlike when her parents served, Morgan Shetler will be able to stay in frequent touch with friends and family back home.
“The Peace Corps now requires you to have a cell phone, so … we will have access to technology and social media,” she said. “My parents were like, ‘That would have been nice!’”
Peace Corps service isn’t easy, but it has lots of benefits, Calloway said. Volunteers get a living stipend and vacation time. They also earn a status similar to military veterans that gets them access to graduate school scholarships and preferred hiring for some government jobs.
“It’s definitely a huge gain, especially to place on your resume that you’ve got global experience,” Calloway said.
Morgan Shetler is excited but apprehensive.
“I’m a little bit worried about my language skills. I tried to learn Spanish, and that didn’t work very well,” she said. “So I’m hoping I don’t make a fool of myself and say the wrong thing or mispronounce anything.”
For more information about the Peace Corps and details about the application process, visit www.peacecorps.gov/apply.
