MARBLEHEAD — John Sullivan was working as a mechanical engineer at a consulting firm when he first applied to the Peace Corps in 2019. Now, as he prepares to set off to Togo after his deployment was pushed back years, Sullivan is living in Atlanta and selling real estate.
Despite those life changes, the volunteer opportunity presented by the Peace Corps was something Sullivan, who grew up in Marblehead, just couldn’t pass up.
Sullivan, now 27, said when the opportunity arose to rejoin the organization, which was forced to evacuate nearly 7,000 volunteers from more than 60 countries at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and delay the deployments of many others, he thought to himself “if I don’t do this, then I’m just gonna regret it for the rest of my life.”
Sullivan’s first deployment was set to begin in June 2020, as a math teacher in Guinea. Now, two years later, he is set to serve as a health volunteer.
In an interview Thursday afternoon, he said he first decided to apply for the Peace Corps when he was working at a consulting firm in 2019 and he began feeling as though he wasn’t making a “lasting impact.”
“I just had read a book and the author of the book had done the Peace Corps and he was extolling the virtues of the Peace Corps and talking about how great of an experience it was for him and also the feeling of good that he was doing for others,” Sullivan said. “The more I thought about it … I was thinking [about] the perception of the United States to the [rest of the world] is rank commercialism or military might.”
“If that’s the face-to-face interaction that everybody has I can understand the negative perception. I really liked the idea that the Peace Corps is like an alternative kind of face-to-face interaction with people from the United States showing the rest of the world that we’re not all like that [and] there’s some good ones out there and we’re here to help,” he continued.
In Togo, a West African country with a population of 8.279 million, Sullivan said he will be working with the community to help improve the infrastructure of the health system as well as educating residents on safe sex.
“The coolest part about the [position], which I wouldn’t have gotten as a math teacher, is there is a lot of room for you to work with the local community leaders and determine other auxiliary projects that … would definitely benefit the community, maybe teaching English as a second language, maybe instituting some kind of STEM program in terms of educating math and science. Or, something within the health sector as well,” he said.
Sullivan said the deployment will be an opportunity for him to get out of his comfort zone — something he said is looking forward to.
“We all have pretty easy, comfortable lives just in America in general. And I really am kind of excited about the idea of … doing something incredibly alien to any sensibilities that I’ve ever had,” he said. “And just a total cultural immersion in a different place, I think it’s gonna be really cool.”
“It’s always been on my bucket list to become fluent in another language and I have a really good foundation of French but I don’t think that you can really become fluent in another language until you are completely immersed in another language,” he continued.
Sullivan said he hoped to learn more about not just language, but also culture throughout his deployment.
Peace Corps CEO Carol Spahn, in a statement, said volunteers in Togo will “work alongside community members to support urgent development efforts and build critical connections.”
“The world is at a critical juncture. The largest global vaccination effort in history is underway while other widespread health, social, political, and environmental issues continue to erode the foundation of our global society. Actions taken in the next few years have the potential to fundamentally impact development trajectories for decades to come,” Spahn said.
The current cohort of volunteers is comprised of both those who were evacuated in 2020, and new volunteers who joined the corps in the two years since the onset of the pandemic, the statement said.
The Peace Corps is currently looking for volunteers to serve in 40 countries around the world at the request of host country governments, the statement said.
Since the organization resumed operations, volunteers have already returned to 17 countries.
Charlie McKenna can be reached at [email protected].
