RPCV Spotlight: Katie LaRoque.
This quarter’s Spotlight features Katie LaRoque who served with Group 39 from 2010-2012. Katie lived in Khmelnytskyi and worked as a TEFL teacher in a large central secondary school and was involved in many projects and summer camps. Now she works as a Senior Program Manager in the Eurasia Division of the International Republican Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization committed to advancing freedom and democracy worldwide. Katie is fortunate enough to travel to Ukraine several times per year as part of her job. She has wonderful insight on how things have changed in the country since her service nearly a decade ago. The more Spotlight interviews I write, the more impressed I become with our alumni! -Elena Krajeski, Khotyn, 2015-2017
Tell me about life before PC. What led you to apply for the program?
I grew up in the town of Lexington, Massachusetts just outside of Boston. It was just my mom and me, but she was always able to take me on little adventures on a shoestring budget. She encouraged me to go on a trip to Cuba with my Spanish class in high school. I was so excited to meet Cubans and that trip really sparked my interest in travel and international relations.
Mom’s friend, Judy, was one of the first PC volunteers to serve in the early 1960’s. She was in Tonga in the Pacific Islands and she would tell stories about how they would get their mail dropped from an airplane every three months or so. Many years later, she went to the annual PC conference when it was in Atlanta and afterward said to me, “I’ve been out of the Peace Corps for over 40 years, but when I’m [with other RPCVs] I still feel like we share the same heart.” I was really struck by this as a teenager.
After high school I attended Mount Holyoke College in Western Massachusetts and studied Political Science and Spanish. For my junior year, I studied abroad in Nicaragua. I had already applied for the Peace Corps before I left for Central America, so any correspondence from Peace Corps I had to hear through my mom via email. While I was in Nicaragua, there was a large black out that lasted several days. When I was finally able to check my email again, there was a string of emails from my mom regarding my acceptance in the Peace Corps Ukraine program. The day I emailed back was the day my response was due, so I just emailed my mom “TELL THEM YES!”
Then I started frantically Googling Ukraine because I knew so little about it.
What was your host organization like in Ukraine? What projects did you work on?
I taught English to 5th -11th form at a large school in Khmelnytskyi oblast center.
I never drank coffee before Ukraine, but something about 8am classes with screaming 5th graders in the Ukrainian winter requires coffee.
I really loved teaching. I loved the energy that came with the PC style of teaching and getting the kids excited and curious about the world around them. We did a huge map project and painted a whole wall. I actually got to visit my school a couple of months ago, and [the mural] is still there! My school even made a second mural the following year right next to it. The school was very supportive of any crazy idea I had, but trying to convince the parents was sometimes difficult. Once, some of the girls and I did a school lock-in, and I taught them how to play sardines and flashlight tag. We also did a Halloween discoteka and English language camps.
In the summer, I participated in and eventually ran GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) camps. It was one of my favorite things I did in PC. We also did a training of trainers program with high school and university kids about how to talk to people about human trafficking and a prevention hotline (wearing t-shirts that we made!).
You COSed in December 2012. What did you do afterward?
I really wanted to see Obama before he started his second term. I made a quick pit stop at home over Christmas and New Years and then moved to DC. My first day in DC was his inaugural parade, and I got to see him walk by and wave. I was totally starstruck. It was difficult to get back in the swing of things. The transition was rough. I did a bunch of odd jobs until I started grad school in the fall of 2013. That was nice because I got to dive back into something that was rewarding for me.
What was your master’s program?
I got my M.A.in Democracy and Governance from Georgetown, which combines international development and political science. It looks at democratic transitions and people movements. I was really interested in that, especially after living in Ukraine. The revolution in Ukraine hadn’t broken out yet when I COSed, but tensions were high and people were beginning to protest. It struck me as odd that so many Ukrainain children I worked with did not understand why I was there. Explaining civics and volunteering was difficult. Some kids understood it, some did not. I was interested in how people develop a voice and have a say in the future of their country.
When did you start at the International Republic Institute (IRI)?
I actually started working full time when I was a grad school. I had classes in the evening and work during the day. Yeah, it was a lot, but it was also how I was coping with readjustment. I just made myself really busy so I didn’t have to think about how much I missed Ukraine. It was non-stop for a couple of years.
Tell me more about IRI.
IRI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization committed to advancing freedom and democracy worldwide. We have a counterpart organization called the National Democratic Institute. Both institutes were created by the Reagan administration in the 80’s and are funded primarily by the State Department and USAID. I love working there because you basically have a front-row seat to how a country develops. I work on Eurasian countries and mostly work with Ukraine. Our programming is around “How do we make Ukrainian politics more transparent, more accountable and more democratic?” We work with political parties to run on issues instead of personalities. We work with young people to get them interested in voting. We help them organize community projects and start civil society organizations. We work with local governments, mayors, and city councils. It’s been really rewarding.
After the revolution, Ukraine passed fiscal decentralization which means that for the first time since Ukraine’s independence, cities have a say in how they spend money on local community issues. I [travel to Ukraine] a couple times a year, and I’m amazed at how quickly it has changed since 2010—especially Kyiv! After the revolution, the currency was devalued and the economy was in shambles, but young people decided to take a risk and took their savings to buy up property and invest in their communities. Investing in the community rather than emigrating to another country.
Kyiv itself has always been a wonderful place, but my memories of it in 2010 were colder and grayer.
Now, post-Maidan, all the guardrails are painted blue and yellow. There is a surge of color, pop-up coffee shops and restaurants everywhere. It exploded with MADE IN UKRAINE and locally-sourced products.
It’s vibrant and hipster. So hipster in fact, I can’t keep up with it. If you had a beard in 2010 in Ukraine, you were either a drunk or a priest. Now half the men in Kyiv have beards! Some of it is foreign investment opening up shop, but a lot of it is locals just taking a risk and succeeding. There is a huge entrepreneurial vibe. It makes me think, ‘where will it be in another 10 years?’ Someone lit a spark and it will never be extinguished. It has erupted in a way that is creative and energetic. Yes, corruption is still an issue and the war is still going on, but there is so much for Ukrainians to be proud of for what they’ve been able to accomplish.
What skills or knowledge did you gain from your Peace Corps experience that helped you to get where you are now?
It taught me to not sweat the small stuff. You can’t control everything in life, and definitely not when you’re traveling! Rather than get flustered, PC taught me to laugh along and take things as they come. The world is a weird place!
If you could give some advice to returnees who want to stay involved, what would you say?
Remembering the 3rd goal of PC: To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans. I remember my mom’s friend, Judy, who stayed an advocate for Tonga her whole life. She told me about the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. The delegation from Tonga didn’t have a translator and it was through the PC network that they found Judy 30 years later. She dusted off her Tonganese and translated! It is important to remember that you will always be an ambassador and advocate for Ukraine, because you never know when you will be needed again!
If you enjoy the Spotlight series and you have a nomination for the next quarter’s article, please send it to [email protected].