Sidebar #78 - The Other Sectors of Peace Corps Costa Rica

Throughout my service, you’ve read about my work as a Youth Development volunteer. Youth Development is one of 3 sectors in Costa Rica along with English Education and Community Economic Development. As a YD volunteer, my role is pretty open-ended; however, my projects all revolve around strengthening life skills (soft skills) in youth. English Education volunteers have a less malleable role. Primarily, they work alongside one specific, designated counterpart - an English teacher. They are assigned to an elementary or a high school and just work there. Conversely, I have a small army of different counterparts and I work at both the elementary and the high schools. I think there are advantages to both: I have more creative liberty in my work and have the opportunity to work with more students and teachers, but English Education volunteers likely make more of an impact on specific students, teachers, and classes, and have more streamlined, defined tasks.

Whereas YD and English Education have a lot of overlap through working with youth, the third sector, Community Economic Development (CED), is quite different. Two years into my service, I’m still not 100 percent clear on what exactly a CED service entails. From my understanding, CED volunteers have the most open-ended service of anyone in Peace Corps Costa Rica. Principally, they work with entrepreneurs, but I’ve heard of CED volunteers doing a wide range of projects. I have friends who wind up helping with farming and manual labor, some engage in tourism projects, and others lead sessions on financial or technological literacy. Another volunteer I know practically works in the Mayor’s office of his town. Because YD and English volunteers work with students, we typically follow the school schedule and work Monday-Friday, but that isn’t the case with CED. Oftentimes they work on weekends because that’s when entrepreneurs and working class adults have availability. It’s been really interesting to travel to some of my colleagues’ communities and see their projects firsthand, because truly, each Peace Corps service is unique.

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