There is a GRE test-prep book sitting on my table. It’s been there for a while. Every now and then, I’ll get really motivated and try and relearn how to multiply fractions. Mostly though, it just…sits there. Reproachfully.

We’re a year in,the end is much more tangible than it was 16 long months ago, and alot of PCV conversations are focused on the future.

For many, that means taking the GRE’s, and hopping, if not immediately, then fairly quickly into graduate programs. Others are thinking about jobs and where they want to settle down.

I am somewhere in the middle, and while I’m not even close to knowing what I want to be when I grow up (and at 25, I feel like maybe I should by now? Other people don’t seem to have as hard a time with this), I feel much more focused than I did this time last year. At least, I have a game plan.

Really, I’m still not all that excited about the prospect of jumping back into school, although I’ve been able to find a few programs that really intrigue me: Cornell’s International Agriculture and Development Program, the Sustainable Ag/Nutrition/Policy program at Tufts, good ol’ Groovy Uvy’s MA in Community Development and Economics, and last (but certainly not least) is Columbia Teacher’s College’s Urban Education MA.

So I know that I’m into agriculture and education, and from where I’m sitting now, I’m hoping to work for a while doing something with food security in low-income urban areas (The FAO Schwartz Fellowship with the Food Trust in Philadelphia has my name all over it). And I’d like to work with children at the same time (school gardens?), see how it goes for a while. If I love it, GREAT! If not, I know I’d be really happy teaching.

Teaching, right? Who would have thought I’d be interested in teaching? But working with my kids here in Claremont, at a school that can’t even find the funds to keep it’s canteen open all year, has given me so much insight into how education, and schools as an institution, impact the lives of their students for better or worse.

With first-hand experience at working with no resources and students who are faced with every conceivable challenge in a culture with incredibly uneven wealth distribution, I think that I would be better prepared than many to work in under resourced schools in the US. Plus, can’t you just see me as the super-cool social studies teacher, crazy ethnic jewelry and all?

What I find really interesting is looking back to where I was last year, with a strong desire to work internationally, to now, where I’m really focused on staying in the US, at least initially. I can always travel. But after almost 16 months in Jamaica, every time I’m confronted with an issue that seems uniquely Jamaican, or “third world”, I realize that is not the case- there are parallel problems of the same magnitude back home. Everything from inadequate housing, to HIV, to hunger to illiteracy, somewhere (or wheres, more likely) these same problems persist in the US.
How can I work abroad to solve a crisis that deserves just as much attention at home?
At what point do we look at ourselves and our society and say, “wellllll, it’s not perfect, but it’s good enough- onto somewhere else more glamourous and let’s tell them how to do things”?

So, unfortunately for the people who make loads of money off the GRE’s- they won’t be getting my $168 or whatever it is, anytime soon. However, if you know anyone who works in urban development or education- let me know. Especially if they’re hiring next May.