After completing my Master’s degree, my interests in teaching and service led me to serve as a science education volunteer for the U.S. Peace Corps in Cameroon. There, I taught students, teachers, and other volunteers and improved my ability to work well with different groups of people and to generate innovative teaching and learning tools from limited resources. At the conclusion of my service, I returned to the University of Rochester with a strong commitment to teaching and to developing a research project that combined my skills in molecular biology with my interests in ecology and evolutionary processes.
Below are excerpts from my official Description of Service (Peace Corps DOS). A full copy of my DOS is available upon request.
Mr. Green began his Peace Corps service on June 5th, 2003 in Bandjoun, Cameroon. There, he completed an intensive 11-week training program that included studies in French and Pidgin English, cross-cultural and environmental education, gender/youth development issues, technical training in the domain of public and person health as well as teaching methodology in preparation for classroom teaching.
Mr. Green took the oath of a Peace Corps Volunteer on August 22, 2003. He was assigned as a full-time teacher to the Government High School in Tatum, Northwest Province, Cameroon by the Ministry of National Education. As one of 34 faculty members, he taught Biology (five sections of 40 students each, 12 hours total per week) and Human Biology (two sections of 40 students each, four hours total per week) at a level roughly equivalent to grades ten and eleven in the United States. In addition to classroom teaching, he coordinated a science club that included students of all grades.
In May 2004, Mr. Green was requested by Peace Corps to attend and participate in the Training Design Workshop (TDW) and Training of Trainers (TOT) Workshop in preparation for the arrival of the 2004 Education Training class of new Peace Corps Volunteers. Following these workshops, Mr. Green was enrolled as a lead technical trainer for the Education Program where he actively participated in eight of the nine weeks of training. During this training session, he participated in and occasionally moderated weekly meetings involving the entire training staff.
In August 2004, the Ministry of National Education transferred Mr. Green to the dual posts of the National Teacher's Resource Center (NTRC) and Longla Comprehensive College (LCC), both in Bamenda, Northwest Province, Cameroon. At the NTRC, he was involved in training the computer science staff and created a stand-alone computer program to teach basic computer literacy of selected programs. This program was subsequently distributed throughout Cameroon via other Teacher's Resource Centers and Peace Corps Volunteers. At the LCC, Mr. Green taught scheduled classes to computer science teachers. He also assisted in setting up a new computer laboratory consisting of over 140 networked machines.
In Bamenda, Mr. Green served as the contact person for schools participating in the Environmental GLOBE / Cameroon Data Exchange Project in the Northwest Province. He also created and delivered presentations on GPS technology to students and teachers, in addition to presenting at a National GLOBE conference in Bafoussam, Cameroon.
Mr. Green was an active member of the Peace Corps Environmental Education Working Group as well as both the Peace Corps Education Project Advisory and Steering Committees. He was also requested by Peace Corps to attend and participate in a workshop to formulate the new Project Plan for the Education Program for Peace Corps Cameroon. He also assisted in language and cross-cultural training of a member of the Peace Corps training staff from March - May, 2005.
Mr. Green received an extension of his Peace Corps service from June 3, 2005 through July 15, 2005 in order to assist in the TDW and actual training for the 2005 Education Training class of new Peace Corps Volunteers to Cameroon.