Blanchet Catholic School, Alumni Profiles

Blanchet Alumna Joins Peace Corp

Gretchen York ’03 is preparing for what promises to be one of the biggest and most exciting challenges of her life. Gretchen will embark to the Ukraine in September where she will live and teach for two years as part of the Peace Corps program. Gretchen is the first Blanchet alumni to participate in this prestigious service program.

Gretchen enjoyed a distinguished career at Blanchet and in college. She was a National Merit Finalist and an accomplished actress who performed in many Blanchet productions. Gretchen recently graduated from Sarah Lawrence College where she had the opportunity to study Mandarin and visit China.

We asked Gretchen to share some of her motivations for joining the Peace Corps. Below are her responses:

What encouraged you to apply to the Peace Corps?
My wish to become involved in a service organization grew out of a long-standing sense of myself as one of the world’s truly lucky individuals; born into a tremendously supportive family, provided with access to first-rate educational opportunities and naturally possessing the abilities and the drive to make use of the resources provided. I have had every advantage that might aid me in the pursuit of happiness. If I have been lucky, then it follows that there are people in the world who have been unlucky. I want to use the innate intelligence and curiosity that have been honed by the lessons of a stellar education to become an active and socially conscionable individual, providing chances where there is no luck. My acquaintance with the Peace Corps in particular began in my sophomore year of college during rehearsals for the drama “Speak Truth to Power,” a piece about human rights defenders throughout the world.

What are you looking forward to regarding your assignment?
I am looking forward to learning a new language (either Russian or Ukrainian depending on the part of Ukraine I am serving in) and learning how to be a teacher. And I am excited that both will occur in the most demanding of environments. In terms of language and training, Peace Corps is a trial by fire, and I relish the challenge.

I want to know the way life progresses in places that are not America, to get a sense of our assumptions about the world we live in and our relationship to it as a particular culture in a particular historical moment.

What are you apprehensive about regarding your assignment? I am apprehensive about nearly everything – whether I will like my host-family, whether I will be able to continue as a healthy vegetarian, and whether I will freeze to death in the cold Ukrainian winters. But these fears are exactly the same as those that I had before going to China, and I know that, though I will be nervous when I get there, I will get through the apprehension and eventually really begin to enjoy myself. I am excited about learning a new language, but very afraid of losing the Chinese that I have worked so hard on over the past two years.

How did Blanchet prepare you for Peace Corps service? My time at Blanchet kept me in close contact with teachers whose dedication to teaching and affection for their respective fields taught me that education does not equal a set of facts to be learned and applied to circumstances under given conditions. It exists more in the interchange between individual student and teacher than in textbooks, making learning a desirable personal process instead of a bore or a burden. Invested in my own education, I was ready to move on to college and fully exercise my curiosity.

We Need Information, Alumni!

Do you have news regarding a recent marriage, birth, job, promotion, college degree, travel plans, awards or any other exciting information you would like to share with your alma mater? We are interested in your progress and would love to receive an update. Please fill out our Class Notes form with your information.