Guest Talk: Building Community and Spotting Chameleons – Experiencing rural Madagascar as a Peace Corps Volunteer

Join Returned Peace Corps Volunteer and Luther alum Becca Buse ’19 for a talk encapsulating their experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Madagascar 2023-25, followed by lunch in the Luther Cafeteria.

Madagascar is the fourth largest island on earth and extremely biodiverse—famous for lemurs, chameleons, and baobab trees. Madagascar also faces poverty, lack of infrastructure (11% paved roads), and inconsistent access to water and electricity. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, Becca focused on three areas of community building: training local farmers to increase sustainable agriculture practices, co-teaching mothers to improve nutrition, and educating community members to protect the local Tapia forest environment. While all Peace Corps experiences abroad are unique to each volunteer, Becca will also have time to answer general questions about applying to the peace corps, different types of service, and living abroad. Additionally, Becca has been selected as a Rotary Peace Fellow and will begin a master’s in Peace and Conflict Studies (MPaC) at the University of Queensland, Brisbane Australia in February of 2026. At the end of the talk you will get a chance to spot a chameleon. It isn’t as easy as you’d think!

*People joining for lunch will need to pay for their own cafeteria entry.