By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
We should all be so driven to fulfill our New Year’s resolutions.
A year ago, Sam Panter, of Bowling Green, was looking at his prospects following his expected graduation from Bowling Green State University in the coming December.
Now just a few weeks following his graduation with a bachelor’s degree in international relations and Spanish, Panter, 23, is heading off to Myanmar to start a 27-month tour as a Peace Corps volunteer.
“I’ve known people throughout my life who have done Peace Corps volunteering and it’s always seemed like a good experience,” he said.
Panter wasn’t sure what his next step would be after graduation. He knew he wasn’t ready to start graduate school.
“I really wanted to have a plan for right after I graduated. I didn’t want to stick around. I wanted to get moving,” Panter said.
So volunteering for the Peace Corps was his New Year’s resolution for 2019. “I thought it was a great way, not only to earn experience, but to get out and see the world a little bit before settling down.”
On Jan. 18 he’ll head first to Washington DC for a few days and then he’ll head to Myanmar to begin his training as an education volunteer. After three months of training in Yangon, he will be sent to the countryside primarily to teach English. But, Panter said, he could also be helping with agriculture and construction.
According to the press release issued by the Peace Corps: “Panter will work in cooperation with the local people and partner organizations on sustainable, community-based development projects that improve the lives of people in Myanmar and help Panter develop leadership, technical and cross-cultural skills that will give him a competitive edge when he returns home.”
The experience will be a good way to assess where his interests are, Panter said. While he has a passion for teaching, he’s not sure in what direction that will take him, though he expects to end up working for a non-profit organization.
Originally, Panter considered asking for a posting in a Spanish-speaking country given his familiarity with that language. But those are harder to land, and “I like the surprise of going where they think I’m
needed.”
This comes after a months-long application process, involving legal paperwork, medical evaluations, and getting a visa. He still has “homework” to complete, he said.
He’s already started learning a bit of Burmese. “It’s very basic. We’ll be doing extensive training once we get there. …They keep us assuring us you may not get this now, but trust us you’ll learn that later.”
After the training, the Peace Corps volunteers will be assigned duties based on where they are needed and their language and other capabilities.
Panter is aware of the challenges of living in a developing country. The availability of drinkable water, wifi connections, and electricity are not reliable. “That’s part of the fun. When you rely on all these things, it’s refreshing to get away from that,” he said.
“For the most part, from what Peace Corps is telling me, it’s one of the safest country for Peace Corps workers, especially for foreigners, it’s supposed to be very safe.”
He will be part of the fifth cohort to work in the country. “It’s a relatively new program.”
His family — parents Kurt Panter and Ann Beck, sister Sage, and brother Adam — is “nervous, but supportive.”
His sister, he noted, is living in Japan.
Peace Corps-related items, such as jackets and phone chargers, were under the Christmas tree for him.
Panter describes himself as “a true townie.” He moved with his family to Bowling Green at 5, and attended public schools, graduating from the high school in 2015. That’s where he first started studying Spanish with “Señor” Dallas Black. He was active in soccer, cross-country, and track and studied art for all four years culminating in senior studio.
Exercising, he noted, is looked askance on in Myanmar. If someone is running, others assume they are being chased. There are no gyms.
And dress codes are more formal than in the United States.
Panter has lived abroad. His family spent a year in New Zealand when he was in fifth grade, and during his time at BGSU he studied for eight months in Spain.
That gave him “the travel bug,” he said. But “I love Bowling Green as a home base.”
