By Kimberly Gasuras
CCN Reporter
BUCYRUS — Bucyrus High School graduate Hannah Schluter always wanted to travel, see the world and help others, and she found a way to combine all three.
Schluter recently joined the Peace Corps and currently is in training.
“Right now, I am completing pre-service training in a small community in the Strașeni region of Moldova,” said Schulter, who is the daughter of Melissa and Tom Schluter of Bucyrus. “Once training is over, I will be teaching health education in the Căușeni region of Moldova.”
The Peace Corps offers a service opportunity for young people who want to make change happen. It allows them to live in a community abroad and work with local leaders to tackle some of the most challenging issues across the world.
Schluter said she has always been very interested in how other people, communities, and countries live.
“And not just in a kind of superficial, observational way,” Schluter said. “I’ve always known the world was bigger than my back yard and I just wanted to see that.”
Schluter, who graduated from Loyola University in Chicago in 2016 after studying criminal justice and psychology, said her parents were more than encouraging about her decision to join the Peace Corps.
“Even in just the one-and-a-half months that I’ve been here, life has been interesting. Living in the community requires you to think and see things a different way than if you were living in the states,” Schluter said. “It also forces you to learn the language a lot quicker too.”
Schulter said it is very strange to live in a country that has some of the fastest internet connections in the world but not everyone has electricity or running water.
“The people here though, they want us to succeed. They may not understand why we left America or why we put our lives on hold to work here, but they want us to do good for their country,” Schluter said. “Every conversation I have with my current host mom or my future host bunica always ends in ‘don’t worry, by two years you’ll be a Moldovan.’ That moment is honestly one of the moments I’m most looking forward to.”
Schluter arrived in Moldova on June 6 and will be in training until Aug. 16. She then will complete two years of service there. For more information about the Peace Corps, visit its website.