Trevor White, Papua New Guinea 1998-2000
Trevor White served in Papua New Guinea from 1998 to 2000 as a teacher.
Why did you want to join the Peace Corps?
There are many reasons why I decided to join the Peace Corps. My parents were both volunteers separately during the sixties, so I heard about the Peace Corps while I was growing up. In about 10th grade, I decided that being a Peace Corps Volunteer would be a great adventure and that I would like to be a PCV. This belief stayed with me throughout college. However, in college I also became very idealistic and wanted to make a difference in the world, which caused me to pursue becoming a PCV even stronger. While I am not sure that I made any big difference the world, I did have a wonderful experience in the Peace Corps and was able to meet great people and possibly make a difference in a few of the student’s lives at my school.
What did you do while you were a Peace Corps volunteer?
While in the Peace Corps, I worked as a high school teacher. I taught both math and social studies. During my second school year, the Head Master of the school asked me to serve as the Social Studies Subject Master. While I am not sure that I am a master of social studies, I did enjoy teaching this subject because I was learning many new things and I could also be more creative in my lesson planning than with math. In addition to my regular course-load, I started an after school extra-curricular program. I noticed that there were many students who were behind in math. In Papua New Guinea, students are required to take national exams in 6th grade, 10th grade, and 12th grade that determine if they can continue in school or not. Since some students were behind in math, I thought that a Math Club might be able to assist them in preparing for their national exams. The club was a success and had many regular participants. We used cooperative learning in which the students themselves were the teachers. Students on one team who were more knowledgeable in a particular topic would assist students who were less knowledgeable on their team. At the end, there would be a competition. This worked well, and eventually I also started a Current Events Club for the social studies program.
What are you doing now?
Currently I am working as an environmental engineer for a non-profit Alaskan Native Health Organization called the Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC). I am in the Office of Environmental Health. I work specifically with the water treatment plants in the 32 communities in interior Alaska that receive environmental health services through TCC. Things ranging from operator and utility manager training to reviewing plans for new sanitation facilities (water plants, Laundromats, wastewater lagoons, etc.). However, here in the Office of Environmental Health we work as a team and we do many different things related to keeping the human environment a healthy one. We even provide rabies vaccinations to dogs to prevent the spread of the disease to humans! I enjoy working here because of the variety of things to do. Each day is different, plus, I get to go to many remote and beautiful locations in Alaska and meet really nice people.
To contact Trevor White, send email to trevorpng@yahoo.com
Trevor White lives in Fairbanks, Alaska.