Profiles

Andrew Holets ’06 has always wanted his life to have purpose.

Today, as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)/Community Development Volunteer for the United States Peace Corps, he has achieved that goal.

In fall 2006, Holets spent two and a half months stationed in Talgar, Kazakhstan, where he took Russian and Kazakh language classes as he trained for his position. Since November 11, 2006, he has served the Challenge Fund, an NGO in the city of Pavlodar that educates and promotes awareness of HIV/AIDS and drug addiction among local youths. His job is to administer lessons in local schools, distribute prophylaxes and information in city nightclubs and improve the infrastructure of the organization financially, technologically and operationally.

So far, Holets has completed the translation, editing and re-formatting of a grant for a city-wide public awareness advertisement campaign, and is currently consulting and editing a grant from Holland for web site creation, public relations, and advertisements on television, radio and public transportation.

He started an English Club for local college students so they can practice the language and discuss American culture. He’s administering English lessons to those in his office, teaching journalism standards and ethics to the students at the local press center, and even participated as an interview panelist for a USAID-sponsored community connections project, where he interviewed, in Russian, six people hoping to travel to the United States for research in their respective fields.

A lot of work went into Holets’ pre-service training.

While Russian language class was an integral part of each day, he also took a one-hour lesson in the Kazakh language, and studied topics such as grant writing, strategic planning, web design and business incubation. After his long and tiring days, Holets says he always looked forward to heading home to have dinner with his host family. By that time, “my brain had had enough Russian for one day.”

Holets advises a colleague at the Challenge Fund in Kazakhstan on grant writing.

Holets lives with his host family in the Pavlodar oblast. Oblasts are similar to territories, and oblast centers are the capitals of these territories. The city of Pavlodar is located in the temperate and geographical region called Siberia, known for its amazingly cold and long winters. Slightly different than the weather he is used to on the East Coast, Holets says that during the winter months Pavlodar reaches -40 degrees Celsius and Fahrenheit, which are the same once the temperature is so cold, with strong winds.

With the cold temperatures, Holets appreciates the hot cup of Chai, solid meal and warm bread that he comes home to most nights. The conversation around the dinner table is spoken entirely in Russian, so even though he doesn’t have to attend language classes anymore, he is always learning and speaking the language.

Later in the evening while he relaxes in his room is when Holets misses home the most. “If I’ve had too many heavily caffeinated cups of tea and can’t fall asleep yet, I’ll keep my sense of American pop culture intact by watching an episode of The Simpsons on my laptop. I can leave America, but America can’t leave me in that regard,” he says.

He also misses the things he took for granted when living in the United States – acquiring information 24/7, the media’s presence in everyday life, American music, and of course, delectable treats such as milkshakes.

After his two-year stay in Kazakhstan, Holets says he would like to return to the U.S. and work with an NGO or government agency in the Washington, D.C. area. He would also like to pursue journalism and writing, but has not completely ruled out law school.

Since 1961, a total of 182,000 people have volunteered in more than 138 countries through the Peace Corps. Holets is one of 7,810 people currently enrolled in the program.

– Caitlin A. Scribner ’07