Alumni and students, as Peace Corps volunteers, become global agents of change.

When Edith Castillo ’06 (Communications Studies) took the women and gender studies class “Women as Agents of Change,” she had no idea she was preparing for her own role as an agent of change.

She took the class to fill a graduation requirement in her senior year at California State University, Northridge. A year later, as a Peace Corps volunteer she used the course material as inspiration in helping rewrite the Constitution of Ecuador to include more rights and protection for women against sexual abuse.

“I loved the course. I was interested in women’s studies but I never really had time to get involved in any real work,” Castillo said. Suddenly she had a high-impact opportunity “to practice what I’d learned.”

Castillo is one of hundreds of CSUN alumni who have taken what they’ve learned at the university to improve people’s lives around the world. More than 450 CSUN alumni have served as volunteers since the Peace Corps was founded in 1961, including 14 who are working overseas today.

Castillo served from 2007 to 2009 in Ecuador, where more than half of the country’s rural population lives in poverty. She was based in Machala, a commercial center for the region’s agriculture industry which produces a major portion of the world’s bananas.

Now a human resources professional in Los Angeles, Castillo says CSUN gave her the tools she needed to be an effective volunteer—how to make decisions, how to be organized and resourceful. She helped to revise the national constitution through her work with a feminist organization that advocated for laws supporting women’s sexual health and against human trafficking. She also worked as a middle and high school social studies teacher during her service in Ecuador.

CSUN graduate Alan Kawamura ’09 (Deaf Studies) is using the skills he gained at Northridge as a Deaf education teacher in Kakamega, Kenya. Since October 2010, he has been teaching students aged 3 to 21 sign language, science, social studies, creative arts and life skills.

“I’m very thankful for a bunch of kids who love to learn, who have the passion and desire to continue their studies,” said Kawamura in his blog. He said the students are grateful to have a teacher who can speak to them in sign language.

Peace Corps director visits campus

Earlier this year, CSUN initiated a Peace Corps Master’s International (MI) Program, sponsored by CSUN’s Graduate Studies, Research and International Programs. Northridge students interested in doing community service overseas can do so while working on their master’s degrees at the university.

Under the parameters of the new partnership, students must first apply to CSUN’s graduate degree programs either in mathematics or secondary education; once admitted, they can apply to the MI program.

Peace Corps Director Aaron S. Williams visited the campus in March to launch the new program. He noted that Cal State Northridge is one of the largest and most diverse universities in the nation. According to CSUN data, more than 150 languages are spoken on campus; more than half of Northridge students are from a minority group, and six percent are international.

“We know that CSU Northridge students have a great deal of the cross-cultural skills and experiences—not to mention language abilities—that make successful Peace Corps volunteers,” Williams said.

According to mathematics professor Carol Shubin, coordinator of the program, the Peace Corps is a wonderful opportunity for CSUN students.

“The students have to navigate obstacles they have never seen before,” Shubin said. “The experience tests everything they have learned in the classroom as well as their perceptions of what they want to do and can do with their lives.”

She added that the Peace Corps is a particularly good fit for CSUN because of its culturally rich student body. Many of the students come from immigrant families and are the first in their families to go to college; they have a lot to contribute as Peace Corps volunteers. Shubin describes the type of student typically interested in the program as “adventure-bound” and possessing “a certain curiosity about the world.”

Castillo is bilingual in English and Spanish and  the daughter of Honduran immigrants who came to the United States in search of a better life. Her father died when she was six months old, leaving her mother to raise her by herself with income earned as a laborer in a sweatshop and then as a nanny.

Castillo said it was the kindness exhibited by her mother’s affluent, Holmby Hills employers who took her in like a daughter that has in part inspired her to serve in the Peace Corps.

“I’ve been so blessed my entire life,” says Castillo. “I just feel like I should share that blessing.”

— Shanté Morgan

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