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Volunteering in lieu of employment

Recent College graduate Emma DiNapoli serves with Peace Corps in Jordan

Emma DiNapoli, a 2014 College graduate, did not foresee joining the Peace Corps after graduation. Now, she is approximately four months into a 27-month stint as a Peace Corps volunteer in Jordan.

DiNapoli admits that her application to the Peace Corps — an organization that sends volunteers to underprivileged areas — was partially born out of the anxiety surrounding fourth years as they approach graduation.

“I actually clearly remember that I was walking across the Lawn in early September and was struck by the realization that I wasn't ready to join the [corporate] world right after graduation,” DiNapoli said. “I wouldn't say that I applied on a total whim, but I hadn't thought the idea fully through, definitely.”

As an English and religious studies major, DiNapoli said she has found connections between her education and her current work in Jordan.

“I do think there's something to be said for spending four years thinking about the social values that are expressed through literature,” DiNapoli said. “It seems to me that a desire to really examine and experience ‘othered’ lives… is a natural byproduct of the study of humanities.”

DiNapoli is familiar with the criticism surrounding the benefit of a humanities degree in a competitive job market, but said she values the lessons imparted from her humanities studies.

“[The best] kind of college education [should] train us in not just technical subjects but prepare us to harness the kinds of qualities — critical thinking, empathy, creativity, inquisitivity, reflection or self-awareness — that make for success in any field in the ‘real world,'” DiNapoli said.

In regard to the much-touted “real world” that exists after college graduation, she acknowledges that the Peace Corps provides a different taste of this world than many of her fellow 2014 graduates are experiencing.

“[Our] group in Jordan regularly jokes about how life in the Peace Corps is both as real as it gets and totally not the ‘real world’ at all,” DiNapoli said.

And DiNapoli’s big decision to serve in Jordan did not come without thought or doubt.

“There’s definitely a little bit of pressure to immediately leave U.Va. and begin making it big in Washington or New York,” DiNapoli said. “After all, the idea of living in D.C. or NYC surrounded by U.Va. alums was — and remains — an appealing one, even from way over here in Jordan.”

Still, she highlighted two major reasons for her decision to join the Peace Corps.

“[One], because I didn’t want to look back at my life in 20 years and wonder what it would have been like to be a Peace Corps volunteer and two, because [the] years just after graduation are some of the most important, [in] which we decide whether we’re going to try and act out some of the principles we’ve studied and believe or take the path of least resistance,” DiNapoli said.

Her time as a volunteer has already imparted skills rarely found either in a classroom or a cubicle.

“Peace Corps service is beginning to teach me how to be really present — physically and mentally — in every interaction I have with people,” DiNapoli said.

Despite admitting elements of personal growth, DiNapoli was careful not to glamorize her efforts nor her successes.

She admits that she does not have a firm plan for her studies or career at the end of her stint in the Peace Corps. However, she was able to defer a job with consulting firm Deloitte until her return from Jordan.

But no matter where she finds herself in 10 years, DiNapoli said she will not regret eschewing the traditional post-grad path.

“Fresh out of college, there’s no better time, no time when you’ll be more unattached to possessions or people or places, to leap out into the actual unknown, to find out how independent and strong-willed you can actually be,” DiNapoli said.

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