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Eighty Percent of students switch majors at least once in the United States. The more of an obstacle you create to that, the less likely you are to have people waste their time on a very expensive, taxpayer funded soul-searching trip to find themselves.

Fixed that for you.

Seriously, if you're switching majors, it means you don't know what you want to do with your life. There are less expensive ways of figuring that out. Join the Peace Corps, become a missionary, join the military, or get a high school level job. The last two will PAY YOU while you're finding yourself. People who are spending an average of $9,000 (in-state public college) to $32,000 (private college) per year, on tuition alone, should already know exactly what they will get for that money.

Hummm... have you considered something radically different - like the Peace Corps? http://www.peacecorps.gov/jobs/workingpc/salary/

Well, I'd like to suggest another charity, then.

http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate

As a former Peace Corps volunteer, I can tell you that the process is pretty upfront. A volunteer talks with community members to figure out how much money will be needed (and what the community will contribute...the community has to provide as least 25%, in order to give more incentive to maintenance after the volunteer has left). Once that much money is raised (usually from friends and family, although I still donate to random projects in the country I was posted in), the volunteer goes to the capital, collects the money, then heads back to the village to start construction. No money is used for salaries of the organization: the volunteers are already there and supported by taxpayer money. So, donations go straight to the project with no overhead. The only exception is if the volunteer leaves the country before the project is completed. If another volunteer doesn't take it over, the donated money goes into the general country fund.

No organization is perfect, but in my experience these projects are pretty good. I've seen wells dug, schools built, and even a bridge, on top of a lot of educational programs.

Kennedy faced a similar problem in the early 1960s, as I heard recently on an NPR story about the Peace Corps. An early proponent had proposed it to some big philanthropy organization, but the representative shook his head and said "American youth aren't that idealistic." But Kennedy didn't believe that, and managed to draw out some inner altruistic quality of American youth that many thought didn't exist.

http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=about.history.speech

Let me say in conclusion, this University is not maintained by its alumni, or by the state, merely to help its graduates have an economic advantage in the life struggle. There is certainly a greater purpose, and I'm sure you recognize it. Therefore, I do not apologize for asking for your support in this campaign. I come here tonight asking your support for this country over the next decade.

Disabusing someone of a naive or selfish notion is not snide, although it might be slightly painful to hear.

I'm sure there are plenty of places in the world who could use some professional expertise.

Yes, but such expertise is provided through organisations with transnational connections and volunteers either training on an ongoing basis for emergencies, e.g. ARES, or providing their services for extended periods.

The Peace Corps., as far as I'm aware, involves dedicated volunteers working abroad for extended periods, with financial benefits for the groups it targets such as student loan deferment. It is in no way whatever a substitute for a week's holiday. You are quite right, however, that IT volunteers exist.

From the original text of the Peace Corp Act (emphasis mine):
to promote world peace and friendship through a Peace Corps, which shall make available to interested countries and areas men and women of the United States qualified for service abroad and willing to serve, under conditions of hardship if necessary, to help the peoples of such countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained manpower.

And now they're begging for money to save frogs. Is there really no more need in the world for "trained men and women"? Or even in Panama (the focus of this slashvertisement)? Well, by all means, then, change the focus/goals of your (gov't funded) organization. But please reflect it on your own website. And then explain to all those poor bastards that could apparently use trained/skilled workers, that they'll just have to get by with their current medicine/infrastructure/agriculture workforce until the frogs are taken care of.

Also, fuck you.

You can always join the peace corp. They need IT people to help out in other countries:

(This'll be my last comment on this as I've had this discussion oh-so-many times with people like you and I get tired of it)

OK, so they don't have internet access today and they can't check the weather. Who's to say the PCV's next project won't be to set up a wireless network? Who's to say they won't soon be getting telephone and dial up in his area? There are a lot of amazing things going on in this area. Here's one of my favorite: Jhai. Granted, you did point out one thing they can not do today with computers which I stated they could, what about all of the other things? Spreadsheets? Students learning? Bookkeeping? Computers are multipurpose tools. Not having an internet connection does diminish the value of them but, as I demonstrated when I was a PCV, by no means eliminates their value.

Building/buying PCs requires a lot of planning and execution. Having lived in the rice fields of central Thailand and spent many days traveling back and forth between my village and Bangkok, I know this from personal experience. It is not easy and this PCV should be commended for his efforts.

There is a big difference between buying a bottom-of-the-line PC over the internet here in America and buying a PC in any developing country. When I was a PCV I did not buy bottom of the line PCs because I knew they would be obsolete way too quickly. We ended up with 35 mid-level machines and we assembled them ourselves. part of this was due to cost and part due to my desire to teach people.

I can not speak for Togo but I can say that here in the US and in Thailand is is almost always cheaper to buy the components and assemble a machine yourself than it is to purchase a machine of the same specs. When I was a PCV that difference was about $300 but machines were expensive in Thailand at the time. When I last built a box here in the US I did a lot of research and saved about $200 building my own machine. Of course I spent my time instead of my money by assembling these machines but I enjoy it and when I was in Thailand I taught a group of students how to do it. Several of them went on to technical school/college to pursue computers - directly because they were exposed to them. Until I came along they had never used or knew anything about computers. So we saved money and built capacity. Pretty good value if you ask me.

The last point I will address is the one which makes me mad because it is clear to me you have not done any research before making such asinine comments as "Really clueless scam".

I suggest you head back to Aaron's blog. Click through to see his project listing on the Peace Corps site. Now, I used to be the director of the Peace Corps Partnership Program - the part of the Peace Corps he is using to help fund his project. If you actually read and research, which you clearly haven't, you might find that the PCPP raises a lot of money for PCVs in country and there is a lot of oversight of these funds. Oversight includes the staff here in Washington, DC accounting, accounting in-country by Peace Corps Staff, project oversight, project reviews, etc. You could even do a FOIA request to learn more about the oversight on a particular project if you wanted. Like I said, I know all this because I used to be director of that program and I fielded many a complaint by donors and Volunteers alike that we added too much red tape. I agree, there is a lot of oversight but it is necessary to maintain the integrity of the program.

In one of my parent comments I mentioned that "in-kind" gifts are not all they are cracked up to be. Early on when I was a PCV I solicited used computers and they were a serious headache. Some worked, some didn't and they all broke fairly quickly. It was just as easy/hard (depends

(This'll be my last comment on this as I've had this discussion oh-so-many times with people like you and I get tired of it)

OK, so they don't have internet access today and they can't check the weather. Who's to say the PCV's next project won't be to set up a wireless network? Who's to say they won't soon be getting telephone and dial up in his area? There are a lot of amazing things going on in this area. Here's one of my favorite: Jhai. Granted, you did point out one thing they can not do today with computers which I stated they could, what about all of the other things? Spreadsheets? Students learning? Bookkeeping? Computers are multipurpose tools. Not having an internet connection does diminish the value of them but, as I demonstrated when I was a PCV, by no means eliminates their value.

Building/buying PCs requires a lot of planning and execution. Having lived in the rice fields of central Thailand and spent many days traveling back and forth between my village and Bangkok, I know this from personal experience. It is not easy and this PCV should be commended for his efforts.

There is a big difference between buying a bottom-of-the-line PC over the internet here in America and buying a PC in any developing country. When I was a PCV I did not buy bottom of the line PCs because I knew they would be obsolete way too quickly. We ended up with 35 mid-level machines and we assembled them ourselves. part of this was due to cost and part due to my desire to teach people.

I can not speak for Togo but I can say that here in the US and in Thailand is is almost always cheaper to buy the components and assemble a machine yourself than it is to purchase a machine of the same specs. When I was a PCV that difference was about $300 but machines were expensive in Thailand at the time. When I last built a box here in the US I did a lot of research and saved about $200 building my own machine. Of course I spent my time instead of my money by assembling these machines but I enjoy it and when I was in Thailand I taught a group of students how to do it. Several of them went on to technical school/college to pursue computers - directly because they were exposed to them. Until I came along they had never used or knew anything about computers. So we saved money and built capacity. Pretty good value if you ask me.

The last point I will address is the one which makes me mad because it is clear to me you have not done any research before making such asinine comments as "Really clueless scam".

I suggest you head back to Aaron's blog. Click through to see his project listing on the Peace Corps site. Now, I used to be the director of the Peace Corps Partnership Program - the part of the Peace Corps he is using to help fund his project. If you actually read and research, which you clearly haven't, you might find that the PCPP raises a lot of money for PCVs in country and there is a lot of oversight of these funds. Oversight includes the staff here in Washington, DC accounting, accounting in-country by Peace Corps Staff, project oversight, project reviews, etc. You could even do a FOIA request to learn more about the oversight on a particular project if you wanted. Like I said, I know all this because I used to be director of that program and I fielded many a complaint by donors and Volunteers alike that we added too much red tape. I agree, there is a lot of oversight but it is necessary to maintain the integrity of the program.

In one of my parent comments I mentioned that "in-kind" gifts are not all they are cracked up to be. Early on when I was a PCV I solicited used computers and they were a serious headache. Some worked, some didn't and they all broke fairly quickly. It was just as easy/hard (depends

Yes, there is: http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resource s.donors

This is the U.S. Peace Corps Partnership Program. It is a program designed to connect PC Volunteers with projects that need funding with individuals and businesses who are interested in donating, either a lot or a little.

As a current PC Volunteer (I don't currently have a project in the Partnership Program), I strongly encourage anyone with a little money that wants to donate to the developing world to look through the available projects. You might find one that interests you and this can be a big help to communities that want to do something but have trouble finding donations (or are simply too small to do so).

And thanks for the willingness to do something! That is what allows development to happen and the world to strengthen!

I used to be in the IT industry, but was laid off. I ended up going back to school, getting my Linguistics degree, learning Spanish, and am now working in Mexico as an English teacher. I don't have working papers yet, but should be able to have them by the end of the year. I'm not yet making enough money to break even (pay all my expenses), but I'm getting experience on my resume and it looks like I'm out of the computer industry for good. Good riddance, I say.

Another option for English teachers is anything in the far east: China, Japan, and Korea, for starters. If you're willing to teach in, say, Korea, there are programs out there where they will pay for your airplane ticket and all expenses.

It's basically impossible to get a work permit in Europe, but the world is a bigger place than that.

Check out David's ESL cafe at http://www.eslcafe.com for more information if you're serious about being an English teacher abroad.

Another option is the US Peace Corps.

Unfortunately (but understandably), the Peace Corps doesn't have a program set up in Iraq.

This is where they work

Maybe this is the best time to go and do something like this

The Peace Corps and AmeriCorps web sites can answer your questions. I believe just about everyone qualifies for either of these organizations.

Yep, that's the point. The Peace Corps has very strict rules about separating volunteers from any sort of law enforcement activities, and that's a good thing: If foreign governments have any reason to suspect that the Peace Corps could be involved in spying or any kind of intelligence operations, they wouldn't be able to trust our intentions. Plus, the volunteers would be even more at risk to kidnapping and similar dangers than they already are. For this reason, all volunteers are put through a CIA background check as part of the application process, not to determine whether they're a security risk, but to find out if they've ever had any association with the CIA. If so, they're permanently ineligible for Peace Corps service, no matter what other qualifications they might have. (There's a similar rule for related intelligence agencies, but they might forgive you if it was more than 10 years ago.) Check out the eligibility form.

Actually, the Peace Corps is taking IT very seriously. They now consider it a "focus area", which means that they devote about the same amount of resources to IT development as they do to AIDS education and prevention. (In other words, a lot.) They made it a focus area in late 2000, probably right after you left, and I attended one of the in-service trainings that Peace Corps funded as part of this change. It is true, though, that IT is not yet a full-fledged Peace Corps assignment, but I predict that it will become one sometime within the next ten years.

Actually, the Peace Corps is taking IT very seriously. They now consider it a "focus area", which means that they devote about the same amount of resources to IT development as they do to AIDS education and prevention. (In other words, a lot.) They made it a focus area in late 2000, probably right after you left, and I attended one of the in-service trainings that Peace Corps funded as part of this change. It is true, though, that IT is not yet a full-fledged Peace Corps assignment, but I predict that it will become one sometime within the next ten years.

For pictures of my experiences, see my site. You'll notice that I brought my laptop with me and was able to apply my geek skills by teaching computer classes on the side. You can find more stories about my geeky life in the Peace Corps here.

When I left Ghana for good in August 2001, I still wasn't yet ready to return to the life of a software developer, so I immediately applied for a job as an English teacher with Nova, the largest private school in Japan. As some here have suggested, this is another great way for geeks see the world and learn skills that don't require electricity. For anyone thinking of that route, I've written some tips on deciding whether to join Nova.

Trevor

Join the peace corps.

Here's that link without the parse error...

OK, some of you talk about the bad things. Let's look at these:

• low/no pay
  As a former PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) I can attest to the value of PC on your resume. Also, believe it or not, there is more to life than money. You might just learn something about yourself and/or the world if you get out of your server room.
  
  
• Parasites/bugs/disease du jour
  Humans have been on this planet for an awful long time and PC, for one, has excellent healthcare. So what if you get Dengue fever (I did) or a few parasites (got them too). The benefits of your experience will far outweigh any foolish American fears of a few microbes. There are 750 million people in Africa - obviously Africa is a great place to live, else there'd be zero. Finally on this topic - most diseases/parasites are easily avoided by simple hygiene - boil your water, don't have unprotected sex...
  
  
• violence/corruption/etc.
  yes, some of these places have violence and most are very corrupt (by the American definition) but, then, that's why they are developing countries. Look around you. violence and corruption are a part of even an American life. Are you so naiive as to believe our gov't. is free of corruption? Go to a developing country, learn to work the system and when you return, you'll be like one of Paul Atredies' Fremen on a new planet - you'll work circles around your stupid co-workers. (ok, bad analogy)
  
  
• Poor/bad/non-existent infrastructure
  You gain strength from doing the thing you think you can not do. I built a computer lab in a rural rice-farming village where there is no running water and little electricity. If you've got what it takes, you can do anything!
  

The Peace Corps may be a really good thing to look into. I have a friend who's going to Turkmenistan in the fall to teach economics and how to start and run small businesses to people there.