Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-041
Donald J. (Don) Stierman served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras from 1969 to 1972 as a teacher trainer. He enrolled in the Brockport Teacher Training Program (at the State University of New York – Brockport) which was designed to train Peace Corps volunteers for Latin America. There he earned a bachelor's degree in physics and a teaching certificate while experiencing rural Honduran life, improving his Spanish, and gaining cultural awareness. Assigned to the teacher professionalization program in Honduras, Stierman worked with elementary school teachers to replace memorization with experimentation. He also introduced science fairs that were replicated countrywide. Stierman recalls the challenges of getting permission to marry his fiance, a Peace Corps nurse, and their life in Tegucigalpa. He coached and refereed baseball in his free time. The Peace Corps influenced him to earn a PhD in geophysics, specializing in earthquakes. When he returned to Honduras in 2002 as a Fulbright scholar, he found that skills he had learned in the Peace Corps were still helpful. Interviewed and recorded by Gail B. Gall, September 11, 2019. 1 digital audio file.