Meredith Kisgen Home from Peace Corps

I am back from serving in the Peace Corps in Swaziland subsaharan Africa. While there I completed various projects under the ambiguous title of "HIV/AIDS educator." I worked with a girls' scholarship and mentoring program at a local highschool benefiting 42 orphaned/vulnerable young females. I worked with fellow volunteers to organize and implement a 12-day, 200 kilometer border to border walk across the nation for HIV/AIDS awareness on the rural level. I also served on a 2-man Monitoring and Evaluation team for the event which touched over 100,000 people. During this UN sanctioned event I filmed and documented AIDS in Swaziland at the rural level and edited it into a 45 minute documentary/video journal which was distributed to our partners, including the UN, to summarize the event and its importance/impact on the people. I also used my video skills to put together a Welcome DVD for potential Swaziland volunteers which was sent to headquarters in D.C. to be used as a pilot for other Peace Corps posts. The DVD included Special Features geared at preparing new volunteers for their service in different fields such as "Packing" and "Volunteer Life." I wanted to let you know that the passion I found working in Film at Piedmont during those experimental times has stayed with me and flourished. I am now looking into applying for an MFA in Film at TISCH and USC Cinema for starters.