The Common Experience event “Volunteerism in Africa” focused on two individuals who volunteered in Africa and their involvement in educating youth. The speakers were introduced by Maria Accardi, assistant librarian and co-chair of the Common Experience Program, who said the purpose of the Common Experience for the 2011-12 school year is to join people together with the common theme of liberty and justice. The two women, Karen Kaye, adjunct instructor of English, and Jill Erwin, instructor of English at Elizabethtown Community College, both volunteered in different parts in Africa.

William Sweigart, associate professor of English, has held this position for 22 years and said his life was changed when he was in the Peace Corps for three years. “Being in the Peace Corps made me realize what’s valuable in life,” Sweigart said. “It gave me a lens to view American Society and the over emphasis on capitalism.” Sweigart is from Pennsylvania. Since then, he has lived in several other places. He lived in Liberia for three years, and he also lived in New York where he taught English. In 1972, he went to San Francisco to visit a friend and stayed there for 18 years.