FACULTY


education” that every young person should have. Lou’s son, Chris, is now a volunteer in Tanzania, teaching high


school math. Nick DePreter’s


involvement with the people of Uganda didn’t end when he left his position as a teacher


where she had taught, and she found other former students who worked at a clinic there. They welcomed her and reminisced about things she had taught them.


“It had an effect on my attitude and gave me more sympathy for other people’s struggles. I saw that it was not wealth but other factors that bring happiness.”


—Lou Paff Lou Paff still gets together


every few years with a volunteer he roomed with, but he is not optimistic about the fate of the people he worked with in Liberia, where two bloody civil wars killed or displaced huge numbers of people. “My heart sank when


the civil war took place,” he said. “I wonder how many of the people I knew survived that time.” Nevertheless, the work


he did there was good, especially improving the nutrition of children at an orphanage. He said the Peace Corps is “a priceless


WWW.OES.EDU


trainer with the Peace Corps. While he was there, he and his mother set up a nonprofit group to provide goats to women in Uganda. The group distributed about 230 goats and then merged with a group called Action for Women and Children’s Development, for which Nick serves as a trustee. The teachers all like to


share their experiences with students, and Nick even co-led an Upper School Winterim trip to Uganda with safety director Tna Meyerhoff last year. They arranged gatherings between the Upper School trip participants and the


fourth-graders so the younger students could experience the trip vicariously and create handmade books for Ugandan students. It brought to life the study of Africa that fourth- graders undertake each year. People sometimes ask Karen


Seder why, after experiencing the dire need for education among impoverished students, she chooses to teach mostly aff luent students at a private school. It’s not because she has turned her back on those children, she says, but because at OES she can help prepare those who will improve the lives of others. “I’m teaching the kids who


will make the difference,” she said.


WINTER 2011 OES MAGAZINE 15 15


“I’m teaching the kids who will make the difference.”


—Karen Seder


Peace Corps faculty alums at OES (left to right):


Hope Stevens US history teacher Thailand 1964-66 Borneo 1967-69


Lara Ingham LS librarian Palau 1995-97


Lou Paff LS technology coordinator Liberia 1965-67


Nick DePreter Fourth-grade teacher Uganda 2002-04


Karen Seder MS math teacher Lesotho 1982-84 (shown on recent visit to friends in Lesotho)


Peace Corps from another viewpoint:


Lower School administrative assistant Lyn Zenisek was not a Peace Corps volunteer, but she married one. She met her husband, Joe, when he came to her native Philippines as a volunteer and taught about nutrition in the small elementary school that she was in charge of. They fell in love, got married, and had a son named Sergio who graduated from OES in 2006.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36