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National Peace Corps Association > News > Advocacy > February Featured Advocate: Sarah Singletary
February Featured Advocate: Sarah Singletary
By Alejandro Castano on Wednesday, February 8th, 2012
From West Africa to Capitol Hill: Recently returned Peace Corps Volunteer Sarah Singletary will be participating in the March 1st National Day of Action
We are always excited to highlight our featured Returned Peace Corps Volunteer advocates, but this month’s selection is especially fulfilling. Before her Peace Corps assignments, Sarah Singletary (Niger 2009-2011, Cameroon 2011) was a Global Education and Membership intern at the National Peace Corps Association.
A “firm believer in the peacemaking power of cultural exchange,” Sarah plans on participating in her first National Day of Action in Support of the Peace Corps since returning from service because “congresspeople would be much more enthusiastic about funding Peace Corps if they, too, had stood in foreign countries surrounded by schoolteachers, civil servants, and thoughtful village elders whose faces lit up as they relayed the lasting memories of their interactions with PCVs through the years.”
After completing her NPCA internship, Sarah first studied abroad in Senegal, where she had the opportunity to see how PCVs lived and worked. Immediately following graduation, she joined the Peace Corps. Through her application process (during her last year of college) she regularly spoke about the agency’s mission with her peers.
As a volunteer, Sarah “brought the world home” to the states by maintaining monthly email updates with her friends and family. “I felt a keen responsibility to my host country colleagues, not only to fulfill their cravings for my perspective on religion, education, development, food and program initiatives, but also to articulate their experiences to my American network of people who, for the most part, have never seen West Africa except through my words.” During her service, Sarah also contributed articles to WorldView magazine as well.
A native of Tulsa Oklahoma, Sarah is currently in Washington working as a fellow at the Partnership for Public Service.
Like many of her peers, Sarah is seeking permanent employment and will be attending portions of the Peace Corps Career Conference planned during Peace Corps Week. She encourages fellow RPCVs to set aside Thursday, March 1st to take part in the Day of Action. “I look forward to the Day of Action as a chance to explain to federal changemakers the value of Peace Corps to my personal and professional development, and to the culturally elucidating exchange I shared with host communities.”
“We are always thrilled when our interns continue on to Peace Corps service, but Sarah’s placement really allowed her to build on her work at NPCA,” said NPCA Vice President Anne Baker, who supervised Sarah’s internship. “As the primary author of a “Third Goal Summary Report,” Sarah now demonstrates what she wrote about: what does the Third Goal look like?”
Follow this link to learn more and sign up for the March 1st National Day of Action.
