Benjamin Gerhold

From Peace Corps Wiki

DESCRIPTION OF PEACE CORPS SERVICE

Benjamin Gerhold

Kenya 2001-2003

After a competitive application process stressing applicant skills, adaptability, and cross-cultural communication, Benjamin Gerhold was accepted to the Peace Corps and began training on October 10, 2001 in Naivasha, Kenya. During the 10-week program throughout which volunteers stayed with Kenyan home stay families the training group focused on the following:

Swahili Language Instruction (140 hours), Small Enterprise Development in Kenya (100 hours), Cross Cultural Training (35 hours), Medical Training (20 hours), Field Based Development (20 hours), Administrative and Support (30 hours)

After the completion of training on December 5, 2001 Ben was sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer and began his work in Kenya. He has worked on the following projects during his 2 years of service:

JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT KENYA

Mombasa, December 2001 to November 2003

-Expanded the operations of Junior Achievement Kenya, an international NGO working to educate young people on free market enterprise, economics, and business, to the second city of Mombasa in the position of Coast Manager

-Enabled over 2000 secondary school students to participate in Junior Achievement (JA) classroom programs by recruiting interested companies, schools, and volunteers and then teaming with other JA trainers to prepare over 100 JA business volunteers to lead these programs

-Managed JA’s relationships with 8 schools and 12 companies on the Coast to ensure their satisfaction with programs as well as the successful completion of each semester long class

-Revamped and relaunched the JA website while serving as Webmaster

-Taught a JA class to 20 students at Khamis Secondary School, improving their creative thinking, leadership, and teamwork skills, in addition to preparing good CVs and learning about HIV/AIDS

PORT REITZ SCHOOL OF CLINICAL MEDICINE

Mombasa, October 2002 to November 2003

-Managed the start-up and running of the school’s first computer lab, which offered computer classes and services to the school’s 300 students and teachers in addition to people of the community

-Oversaw the completion of a 400,000 Kenyan Shilling grant installing the computer lab in the school

-Advised the school on its marketing and pricing strategies that made possible the financial stability of the computer lab within the first 2 months of operations

-Gave intense weekly and daily classes for 20 teachers and students in topics ranging from using Microsoft Office programs to double clicking a mouse

ADDITIONAL

-Served as the editor of SEDITion (The Small Enterprise Development and Information Technology Newsletter) that was distributed to all Peace Corps Volunteers in Kenya and was voted best Peace Corps Kenya newsletter for the year 2002 by volunteers

-Represented the Youth Business Development Sector on the Small Enterprise Development and Information Communication Technology (SEDICT) committee

-Consulted for the Shanzu Traditional Workshop for Handicapped people on their computer issues

-Achieved a level of Advanced in Swahili (ACTFL scale) after 2 years of constantly trying to use and improve the skill, which was the highest score obtained by anyone in the training group