Alumnus Share's Peace Corp. Experience
     The senior religion class was privileged to listen to an alumnus who has been serving his country in a unique way. Marty Sampson who graduated from Mt. Michael in 1996 was part of the Peace Corp. Having an engineering degree, Marty specialized in the section of the Peace Corp. having to do with water and sanitation.
     Mr. Sampson remembered hearing about the Peace Corp. around the age of 13 or 14. After graduating from Marquette University, he wanted to do something for others. Mr. Sampson who joined in 2003 resided in the Dominican Republic where he built an aqueduct for a town. The aqueduct that Mr. Sampson constructed supplied nearly 1,500 gallons of water a day to the community. Mr. Sampson had a great relationship with his community in the Dominican Republic. He worked and taught the people how to fix the aqueduct so that when he came back into the States, they could easily fix it on their own. When he arrived Mr. Sampson was greeted like one of them and immediately developed a great relationship with his host family. Mr. Sampson has not only gained new friends, but also a new out look on the world while serving in the Peace Corp. While in the Dominican Republic he said, “The United States is spoiled when it comes to using resources as compared to how developing countries use their resources diligently.” Mr. Sampson explained that he sees a lot of parallels to the Peace Corp. and Mt. Michael. His freshmen year at the Mount he started with 44 classmates, and his group in the Peace Corp started with the same number of members. Another parallel to Mt. Michael is that everyone came from a different state, country or city like here at Mt. Michael. Mr. Sampson who was in the Peace Corp for 2 years had this to say about his experience, “It opens your eyes to the world, and how things work.” Article by Scott Ritzman