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After graduating from Dedham High School in 2004, Emily Jones said she knew she wanted to contribute to society in a big way.
She started by joining City Year, an AmeriCorps program that focuses on education with inner-city youth. After devoting two years to City Year, Jones took her mission internationally and joined the Peace Corps in September of 2010.
A year into her service, she is helping empowering girls in a small village in Togo, West Africa. She is currently involved in a project to build a library in her community and needs our help. She traveled several hours from her village of Broukou to the nearest city of Kara to talk to the Dedham Transcript about the program and her memories of Dedham High.
Where are you living and working?
I am living and working in a small farming community of 4500 people. My little corner of Togo is remote but beautiful! I am next to a river, have mountains in the distance, and baobab and mango trees aplenty. I live with a Togolese host family in a family compound, sometimes eating meals with them, and I work throughout my village. My community has provided me with support and warmth from my arrival. I have been extremely lucky.
What is your main project with the Peace Corps? Have you started on a secondary project?
My main project is Girls’ Education and Empowerment, which is a subset of the Community and Youth Development sector and is special to Togo. We focus on encouraging community members to send their daughters and sisters to school, as well as supporting girls to stay in school through university, through peer educator groups, life skills clubs, soccer teams, women’s groups, teacher and community member trainings, etc. Additionally, we share information on income-generating activities, health and healthy relationships with the girls.
The community library is one of my secondary projects, although it very much goes hand-in-hand with supporting girls’ education in our community. I am working with a group of Togolese counterparts and there is also widespread support from community members and students.
What motivated you to join the Peace Corps?
My brother was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Paraguay as an Agro-Forestry Volunteer and my father was an officer in Vietnam (with the U.S. Navy) Seabees, so I think service has always been in our blood. From early on, my family stressed the importance of helping others and not taking things for granted, which motivated me to think outside of my life’s bubble and toward service opportunities like Peace Corps.
After graduating from Dedham High School in 2004, Emily Jones said she knew she wanted to contribute to society in a big way.
She started by joining City Year, an AmeriCorps program that focuses on education with inner-city youth. After devoting two years to City Year, Jones took her mission internationally and joined the Peace Corps in September of 2010.
A year into her service, she is helping empowering girls in a small village in Togo, West Africa. She is currently involved in a project to build a library in her community and needs our help. She traveled several hours from her village of Broukou to the nearest city of Kara to talk to the Dedham Transcript about the program and her memories of Dedham High.
Where are you living and working?
I am living and working in a small farming community of 4500 people. My little corner of Togo is remote but beautiful! I am next to a river, have mountains in the distance, and baobab and mango trees aplenty. I live with a Togolese host family in a family compound, sometimes eating meals with them, and I work throughout my village. My community has provided me with support and warmth from my arrival. I have been extremely lucky.
What is your main project with the Peace Corps? Have you started on a secondary project?
My main project is Girls’ Education and Empowerment, which is a subset of the Community and Youth Development sector and is special to Togo. We focus on encouraging community members to send their daughters and sisters to school, as well as supporting girls to stay in school through university, through peer educator groups, life skills clubs, soccer teams, women’s groups, teacher and community member trainings, etc. Additionally, we share information on income-generating activities, health and healthy relationships with the girls.
The community library is one of my secondary projects, although it very much goes hand-in-hand with supporting girls’ education in our community. I am working with a group of Togolese counterparts and there is also widespread support from community members and students.
What motivated you to join the Peace Corps?
My brother was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Paraguay as an Agro-Forestry Volunteer and my father was an officer in Vietnam (with the U.S. Navy) Seabees, so I think service has always been in our blood. From early on, my family stressed the importance of helping others and not taking things for granted, which motivated me to think outside of my life’s bubble and toward service opportunities like Peace Corps.
Do you think any of your experiences at Dedham High contributed to the work you are doing now? If so, how?
Yes, definitely. Dedham High School taught me to empathize and look at life from other peoples’ perspectives, to realize that people bring different skills and knowledge to the table, but that behind everyone is a story that is worthwhile listening to. That’s helped me to ease into cultural integration and collaboration with people here, when it would be so easy for either party to write off the other as different and therefore not important to work with.
Dedham High School also taught me to look at problems critically and logically to find the most ideal solutions. This has helped me to step back and take the wide view of my service, to realize that while I might want to accomplish certain projects, that my community and I have to work together to decide on the projects that are best suited to address my community’s needs.
Who was your most influential teacher at Dedham High?
Lornie Bullerwell, an amazing individual. He taught me biology in ninth grade and AP Biology in 12th grade. He challenged us to think critically and logically, to not take what we read at face value but to really delve deeper and separate the truth from the babble. And he made science really fun and hands-on.
What class at Dedham High is the one you feel like was the most worthwhile?
Again, I could say either of those classes with Mr. Bullerwell, or Mr. Walsh’s fascinating comparative government class, Mr. Frank Barbuto’s amazing math classes... the list goes on forever. Ahhh! I could never answer this question. If forced to, I might go with Dr. John LaFlamme’s AP English class, because while it wasn’t my favorite (because of the sheer fact it was hard), he forced us to create clearer, more concise and descriptive arguments. I had (and still have) a penchant for verbosity, but he taught us to value quality over quantity.
Did you participate in extra-curricula activities?
Absolutely- I was an avid, if not accomplished, extra-curricula-er. I was in the Student Council and School Council, both of which I would highly recommend because I got to see the inner workings of an establishment and how to create positive change from within a system.
I also did spring track and cross-country, and while I was the senior cross-country team captain, it was really and truly only because I was the ONLY senior girl that year. I considered myself more of a mascot, really. Aren’t we a pirate (mascot) now? I would have made a mean pirate.
After graduating from Dedham High, did you feel prepared for the rigors of an Ivy League education?
I came into college at the top of my high school class, used to performing well in school and having lots of support from my teachers. Going to a place where most of the students were themselves high school valedictorians quickly made me a minnow in a very large ocean, which definitely cut my pride down (probably a good thing, though it was hard at the time) a few notches. I do think that the AP and honors classes I took in high school prepared me fairly well for the rigors of college, but I was intimidated by other students whose writing and speaking skills seemed vastly superior to mine, mostly because they were used to actively engaging in intellectual class discussions. I would high encourage Dedham High School to focus on providing persuasive writing and public speaking courses, because that will help our graduates in any career they go into.
What is the best kept secret at Dedham High?
Do they still have all the bathrooms locked? If so, we (the Student Council) painted lots of murals in the bathrooms back in 2004. We got tired on the last bathrooms and ended up throwing lots of paint at the walls to create an Andy Warhol-esque creation- I wonder if it’s still there. But, for real, one of the best kept secrets at Dedham High is art class and band - take advantage of those courses. Art was a great way for me to de-stress and engage in some creative activity. I’ve heard our photography program is great, too - not sure if that’s offered currently.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I am considering applying for a third year in Togo as a Peace Crops Volunteer Leader, and then I would like to go to graduate school for two years for international community development or public policy with a concentration in public administration. Hopefully, that would mean that 5 years out I’ll be in a position to work for an agency focused on community development in Boston or more internationally with an organization like the United Nations Development Program. Right now I’m trying to figure out if I want to work more locally or globally- it’s hard because there are so many great places to live, but Dedham is definitely one of them, especially with all the great community improvement projects that are going on right there.
What advice do you have for current Dedham High students?
I would like to encourage Dedham High students to work hard and focus on what they really enjoy and are interested in. High school was a tough place for all of us, filled with cattiness, teenage angst, and a huge workload with seemingly no end in sight. But if you are inspired by what you want to become, you have a goal to work toward - there is more to life after high school graduation! There are so many opportunities open to you- just make sure you take advantage of this time you have now to think about who you are and who you want to become, and the rest will all fall into place...And, remember, you’ve got it really good there. Dedham represent!
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About Emily Jones
Elementary school: Riverdale
Year graduated from Dedham High School: 2004, Valedictorian
After high school: Dartmouth College, Class of 2008; bachelor’s degree in human geography
Peace Corps Togo: Girls’ Education and Empowerment , September 2010-today
What is one thing you miss about the United States?: Winter! Ben & Jerry’s cake batter ice cream! Family and friends!
Help her library project: Those interested in supporting the library renovation in Togo can go to www.peacecorps.gov/contribute. The project number is 693-381. One hundred percent of each tax-deductible donation goes toward a development project.
