Aleya Horn '00 always knew she'd end up in the Peace Corps. From an early age, she noticed people volunteering around her and wanted to help.

"I enjoyed the idea of living abroad, working and living in a community," says Horn, who is now earning her M.A. in Public Policy at Georgetown University.

To prepare for the challenge, the self-proclaimed "people-lover" majored in Sociology. She took international law and world politics classes with Volker Franke, associate professor of Political Science and participated in Associate Professor of Sociology Lauren Dundes' Field of Wings, a mentoring program that pairs college students with at-risk middle school girls.

In 2002, the Peace Corps found her the perfect fit for an urban youth development program in a poverty-stricken town in the South American country of Paraguay.

"My project was to reunite youth to their community," says Horn.

She taught classes on self-esteem, leadership, literacy, and nutrition in two schools, for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Horn also taught multiculturalism after some negative personal encounters. She says some people spit at her and called her names because she is African American.

"They thought I couldn't possibly be American because I was black. They thought I was from Brazil or Cuba," she says.

The other big challenge: being a woman. Immediately, Horn realized women are restricted in Paraguayan society. As a Peace Corps volunteer, Horn says she did have more freedom than most – and used it to teach other women how to gain leadership roles in their community.

But Horn's greatest victory came through her work with a group of underemployed 19- to 25-year-olds. Their goal was to build more classrooms onto a school. The youth group ran the entire project: from drafting the proposal to completing construction.

"This job did it -- it gave them marketable skills."

The completed project was more than just a schoolhouse. It represented the final test of all that Horn had taught.

"I can remember some of them saying ‘Before you came, we'd never be doing this.' And I said, ‘I think you've proven your dedication to the community.'"

Culture shock hit when the Pennsylvania native returned home in the summer of 2004.

"I felt like a different person, and I couldn't go back to being the person I was before. It was hard to find where I fit."

Inspired by the women of Paraguay and her work to empower them, Horn took a job at Planned Parenthood, where she stayed until graduate school began this fall. She hopes to turn her love of helping others into a career in advocacy.

"My dream," Horn says, "would be to work in an agency revolving around social welfare policy."