CLARKSVILLE, Tenn.- Kellie Mahoney, 26, of Clarksville, Tennessee, has been accepted into the Peace Corps and will depart for Colombia on January 17 to begin training as a primary education teacher trainer.
Mahoney will work at the community level to help train and develop teachers’ English-teaching skills. She will also create resources for the classroom, facilitate staff professional development opportunities, and co-teach lessons.
Mahoney is the daughter of Dana Mahoney and Chris Sherman Goad and a 2008 graduate of Rossview High School. She attended Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee and graduated with a degree in special education in 2012. After receiving her bachelor’s degree, Mahoney worked for AmeriCorps for a year, which inspired her to consider Peace Corps service one day.
“I have always wanted to work with youth in schools and in communities. I studied education in college and had an open mind about where it could take me,” Mahoney said. “After college I traveled and lived abroad. I also moved to Nashville to serve with AmeriCorps. These experiences opened my heart up to working with non-profits, communities, and schools.”
During the first three months of her service, Mahoney will live with a host family in Colombia to become fully immersed in the country’s language and culture. After acquiring the necessary skills to assist her community, Mahoney will be sworn into service and be assigned to a community in Colombia, where she will live and work for two years with the local people.
Mahoney will work in cooperation with the local people and partner organizations on sustainable, community-based development projects that improve the lives of people in Colombia and help Mahoney to develop leadership, technical and cross-cultural skills that will give her a competitive edge when she returns home. Peace Corps Volunteers return from service as global citizens who are well-positioned for professional opportunities in today’s global job market.
Mahoney joins the 90 Tennessee residents currently serving in the Peace Corps. More than 1,844 Tennessee residents have served as volunteers since the agency was created in 1961.
There has never been a better time to apply to the Peace Corps. Agency reforms have made the process simpler, faster, and more personalized than ever before. Peace Corps’ application reforms allow applicants to choose their country of service and apply to specific programs through a shorter application that can be completed online in about one hour. In 2015, Peace Corps received nearly 23,000 applications from Americans who want to make a difference through service overseas, reinforcing the agency’s role as a dynamic, forward-leaning champion for international service more than half a century after its creation. Browse available volunteer positions at https://www.peacecorps.gov/volunteer/volunteer-openings/.
About Peace Corps/Colombia: There are 44 Volunteers in Colombia working with their communities on education projects. During their service in Colombia, Volunteers learn to speak Spanish. More than 4,795 Peace Corps Volunteers have served in Colombia since the program was established in 1961.