Turning 50 inspires some to buy a new car or pick up a new hobby. But Sylvia Swift, a UW-Madison Physics Department employee, joined the Peace Corps and spent two years doing community and organizational development in Moldova, a country in Eastern Europe.
“I had turned 50 years old and I didn’t have any children and I was at a point in my life when I could walk away from my day job and I wanted to give back. I wanted to try to make the world a better place and I decided on the Peace Corps,” Swift said.
While in Moldova, Swift primarily partnered with a hospice care facility, as well as translating for the local government, teaching American Literature and English Conversation at a local university and leading an English club.
“A friend of mine has the best attitude toward Peace Corps volunteering. The best volunteers are humble and grandiose at the same time,” Swift said. “You have to be humble and realize you yourself are not going to be able to change the whole world and make everything better and you have to be a little grandiose and think ‘I can do one project.’ I can put energy in the right direction so things can change for people.”
In recalling her service, Swift identified her proudest moment as working with the hospice center to secure the donation of two used cars for the facility.
“It meant a lot to them because with hospice being in-home care, the nurses go into people’s houses and give them treatments and medical supplies and the used cars made it possible for more patients to get that treatment,” Swift said.
After concluding her service in August 2014, she moved to Madison with her fiancé whom she met in the Peace Corps. Swift now does research administration for the UW-Madison Physics Department, where she said she uses her experience in the Peace Corps as well as her previous job experience.
“I just am very glad that I went. I believe that the Peace Corps does make a difference in the world one person at a time and situation at a time.”
