Darryn Crocker Peace Corps

My name is Darryn Crocker I am a 2008 graduate of SVSU’s nursing department. I have my BSN. I found the nursing program challenging, definitely a challenging program because the staff here want to prepare you the best they can for the floor for the things you can expect as well as the nursing boards itself, which aren’t easy. So the program challenged me in many different ways but I definitely felt like I was getting the best education in this area. For those who think that they only admit, you know, just a few students… I actually had the great opportunity at SVSU to pre-apply for the nursing program based on my grades in high school. I could come into SVSU before my freshman year and apply for a program, which I don’t think any other university that I looked into gave me that opportunity. So I knew coming in that I could go right into the nursing program after my prerequisites were set. I just got back actually a few months ago from the US Peace Corps where I was a volunteer for over three years in Swaziland, Africa. So, at the moment I’m readjusting back into American life, figuring out what that means. I moved down to the Lansing area and accepted a job as a nurse at Sparrow Hospital. I was a health education volunteer in Swaziland. So in the first two years, or a normal Peace Corps service length. I lived in a rural community by myself. I lived on a homestead with a Thamini Family. I actually took on the name Zodewa Thamini and so I was not known as Darryn Crocker there. And I did a lot of public health nursing, although my title was health education volunteer, with the focus on ***. Swaziland has the highest prevalence of *** in the world. Almost one in three people have *** and so working with different groups, primary school students, teachers, adult support groups, male health events, even to mass media campaigns. I’m working on different projects to educate about *** – the treatments, health seeking behaviors, and the different stigmas against it. So I did multiple projects in the community. And then I actually got my heart stolen by some youth at the Baylor College of Medicine’s Pediatric Clinic. I did two summer camps with them – with youth who had ***. They stole my heart. I got involved in the support groups for them and decided to stay a third year, moved up the capitol – had running water, yay! And worked with that population specifically as a psychosocial support officer. I then led all of those camps and the support groups and teen leadership trainings and even got six youth sent to America to do the International Aids Conference last July. So I did quite a few different things with them, but three years in total. One of my greatest memories would be in the community with my host family. The Thamini Family really truly became my family there. Magay which means mother and Swaswaray and Bobay which is father, became my family away from America. Any time I got to spend with them in learning different things and having them show me their life and their culture and including me in that was fabulous. One story, I went out with two of my brothers, or Bobuti, we went out into the woods because it was, for lack of a better term, grub picking season. My brother did not, Sandilay, know how to say caterpillar or that type of insect in English, and I hadn’t quite learned in Swasari, so I didn’t understand it when he was saying it. So he kept going “Cheap, cheap, we’re gonna, the cheap, cheap. We’re gonna go get this cheap, cheap.” And I was like, “Ok, let’s go and get these!” And so we all went out and we collected these little grubs to then be cooked later that evening. I was a part of that process. I hate to admit that I was this close to losing my dinner a few times in that process. But it was great to spend time with them and experience something new, something that I never, I never would have been able to do. And again, a whole day just spent with family and experiencing new things. That was a fun and interesting experience to say the least. I felt very prepared by SVSU to be able to do this. I was one of the only healthcare professionals in our group who had gone over. So during the training aspects, for a few months of training in the country where people were getting the knowledge of *** and working with different communities and different populations talking about these specific topics, I had been exposed to a lot of that at SVSU in the nursing program. Just today I actually talked about how much I relied on my public health semester when we focused on public health and community health when it came to needs assessments or resource assessments or evaluations and working with different populations. I had gotten a whole semester on that. And I felt very fortunate to have that experience before even going over. I think one of the ways that I changed because of my time in Peace Corps is to have my world opened up, my perspective on what the world is, how other people of other cultures live. And I think one of the things that I got out of that is then: what does my identity look like, as an American? As a young female? Looking and experiencing life with people who may not have the same rights as I do, as a female in America or as an educated young adult. And to be able to come back and decide then, what does that mean for my identity? And how, and what things do I know appreciate that maybe I had taken granted before by living in America and being an American. Really, that changed quite a bit. Being just newly hired at Sparrow Hospital down in Lansing, I’m definitely looking for different opportunities and experiences in the Lansing area to use some of the experiences and knowledge I gained over in Swaziland, whether it’s *** or communicable diseases, psychosocial support, adolescent support and different things. I really hope to continue to be involved in that area. And again, take what, take what experience I have and give back to Michigan and my community. I guess the advice that I would give to a nursing student today is that there are so many opportunities. So many opportunities out there. Sitting in this lab, and you know, the different things we learned here can be applicable amongst a variety of different environments, different opportunities, different working situations. And so, although you know jumping into a job, you know, down the street at some of some our lovely hospitals may be what you what to do, definitely look at some of the other opportunities out there. Because you can use your degree in a multitude of different ways.