A volunteering trip to a foreign country may not be the standard model for a business trip, but travel always has its rewards.

David Jesse, campus representative for the Peace Corps, spoke on Monday in the Gerdin Business Building. Knowing that many students were there for a class, he explained how a business background could be useful in helping set up fair-trade agreements and eco-tourism.

Jesse spent two-and-a-half years in Moldova, a mostly agricultural post-communist country in eastern Europe, in the Peace Corps’ community development program. He lived with a family on a small farm in a town about 60 miles south of the capital.

“I felt so healthy living there,” he said, “It’s all organic. They don’t have money for fertilizer.”

As Jesse talked about his time in Moldova, he showed pictures. The slideshow showed the family he lived with, the children in his community and a man talking on a cell phone while driving a horse-drawn cart.

Jesse gave details of how – and why – to join the Peace Corps. He explained that it’s not for everybody and there are other ways to volunteer if a two-year stint in another country doesn’t appeal.

To join a person fills out the application – online at Peacecorps.gov – and goes through a six- to nine-month process before getting a packet of information containing the trip location and time.

While its volunteers are abroad, the Peace Corps pays for medical and dental care and provides transportation home and back in case of family emergencies. The corps also trains volunteers in the local language.

After a student questioned whether going away for two years would hurt one’s job prospects, Deborah Noll, academic adviser in the business undergraduate program, said it wouldn’t.

“They are not going to hold this against you,” she said.

Jesse explained that a volunteer isn’t “doing nothing.” A volunteer is a teacher, a community builder, a business adviser – whatever the program requires.

Nora Seleskie, sophomore in pre-business, is considering going into the Peace Corps. She said she didn’t feel nervous but looked forward to the challenge and making her life “worth it.”

Jesse said the Peace Corps, besides providing for the volunteers and their safety when they’re volunteering, helps get them set up afterward.

Volunteers are given an allowance of approximately $6,000 and graduate school opportunities – which Jesse himself is taking advantage of, going to grad school while representing the Peace Corps.

He said some people took the allowance and went on long, cross-country vacations.

“The only advice I’d give you [about spending the allowance] is ‘hold on to one month’s rent,'” he said.