It didn’t take long after graduating from Wittenberg this past spring for Max C. Joseph to achieve one of his goals: serving in the Peace Corps.
A member of the class of 2017 from Columbus, Ohio, Joseph (center in the photo above) is stationed in Mongolia, where he teaches five English classes each day, helps run afterschool programs and spends evenings preparing lesson plans with his Mongolian counterparts.
He describes life in Mongolia as very different from the United States.
“The first 11 weeks in Mongolia were intensive training weeks, where we learned teaching methodologies, the Mongolian language, and more cultural and customary practices,” said Joseph, a political science major at Wittenberg.
Joseph serves in the southern region of the country in a small community called Bayankhongor, approximately 15 hours from the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar.
Even before arriving at Wittenberg, Joseph was interested in joining the Peace Corps. While at Wittenberg, he befriended Scott Rosenberg, professor of history and director of Wittenberg’s Peace Corps Preparation Program, one of only a few such programs in that nation.. After hearing about Rosenberg’s experience with the Peace Corps, Joseph thought it would be “incredibly humbling to experience on [his] own.”
During his time at Wittenberg, Joseph also joined Rosenberg and fellow students on a service trip to Lesotho, which further inspired him to apply to the Peace Corps, ultimately becoming a volunteer. He was also involved in many activities at Wittenberg, including Delta Tau Delta fraternity, Student Senate, men’s ice hockey club team, Lesotho Nutrition Initiative and Outdoors Club. Additionally, he served as music director for WUSO 89.1 FM, Wittenberg’s student-run radio station.
“Going to Wittenberg enabled me to surround myself with colorful, lively and wonderful people who helped make this dream of mine come true,” he said.
After the Peace Corps, Joseph hopes to attend graduate school or join the military with intentions of working in the intelligence field.
by Rahul Ramanathan ’20, University Communications
