From Fairbanks to Fiji, student's adventures continue

Brooke McDavid on Flattop Mountain.

SNRAS graduate student Brooke McDavid will go from the Arctic to the South Pacific in a few weeks.

McDavid, a Peace Corps Master’s International student, will begin 27 months of volunteer service in Fiji in May. She doesn’t know exactly where she will end up or what job she will have but she is excited at the prospects.

Born and raised in Nitro, W.V., McDavid earned dual degrees in natural resources management and parks and protected areas management at Colorado State University. She worked for the U.S. Forest Service in the wilds of Idaho and Montana before heading north. “I wanted to move to Alaska, do graduate work and be in the Peace Corps,” she said. “I could do all of that here at UAF.”

Professors and friends at CSU had told McDavid about the Master’s International program and she thought it would be a wonderful way to earn a master’s degree and serve in the Peace Corps. She has adjusted well to Alaska over the past 10 months. “I love it,” she said. “I have found my new home. It’s funny I’m leaving so soon but it will be here when I get back.”

McDavid is looking forward to opportunities to learn about and experience another culture. “It will be fun to live and work in a new place and see things from a new perspective,” she said.

“It’s one thing to study about developing countries in the classroom and another to go there and experience what it’s actually like.”

McDavid’s academic interests are in community-based natural resources management and making sure local stakeholders are properly represented in management. She hopes to work along that line in Fiji but is game for just about anything she is assigned. It was that openness and flexibility that pointed her to Fiji. She told the Peace Corps she’d go anywhere she was needed. “Fiji wasn’t what I was expecting but I am not disappointed,” she said with a big smile.

For the first three months in Fiji McDavid will live with a host family, then receive her assignment. English is one of the languages spoken in Fiji, as it was under British control until 1970..

“I’m looking forward to everything,” McDavid said. “I’m trying not to have too many expectations but I’m looking forward to the new languages, new food, the beaches and sunshine. It’s going to be cool to be in a completely new environment.”

McDavid is fond of backpacking, reading, music and scuba diving. Her goal in life is simply to be happy, which includes “seeing and experiencing as much of this beautiful world as I can and trying to help the world be a better place.”

Associate Professor Susan Todd believes McDavid will be a good ambassador. “She is so friendly, easygoing and bright,” Todd said.

“She is willing to listen and is very flexible, which is important. She doesn’t come with her mind all made up and doesn’t think she has all the answers. Brooke is eager to help in any way she can.

“And she’s adventurous.”