Napa resident Dominique Gebru, a Peace Corps volunteer and youth literacy adviser serving in Jamaica, is a finalist in the Peace Corps' Blog It Home contest.
During her volunteer mission, which began in May 2014, she's maintained a blog about her experiences to keep family and friends up to date about her volunteer work. Out of 400 blogger submissions, Gebru's blog Two Years Pon Di Rock was ranked in the top 20 by the Peace Corps, qualifying it to advance to the public vote. Voting is now open on the Peace Corp's Facebook page, facebook.com/peacecorps. Voting concludes Monday.
As a youth literacy adviser, Gebru works at a small primary school helping its 130 students learn to read and write.
"I have done a lot of work with the school's library," Gebru said. "I added a kid-friendly classification system to replace the piles of mixed adult, children's, and reference books that we had when I arrived, and I have also successfully designed and implemented a student library monitor program to make sure that someone is helping the students check out books.
"This upcoming school year, I will be helping teachers to improve their literacy instruction tactics to include more games and other kid-friendly activities that will help boost students' confidence and ability."
Gebru is a 2008 Vintage High graduate. She completed her degree in international relations and history at UC Davis in 2012. Before joining the Peace Corps, Gebru worked in the medical field and volunteered at the South Napa Homeless Shelter. She's also volunteered with Camfed International and Ronald McDonald House Charities.
While serving in Jamaica, Gebru lives with a host family, which has provided a home away from home. In her spare time, she enjoys running and writing.
"Blogging has really helped me in a lot of ways during my service," Gebru said. "Jamaican culture can be really tough to encounter sometimes, but writing about it with the intention of sharing it with friends and family back home has really helped me to make sense of it.
"Writing gives me something to do when school gets cancelled due to heavy rain, it helps me keep my head up on the worst of days, and it helps me share my experience in this incredibly warm culture with the people I care about."
Read Gebru's blog at twoyearsponderock.wordpress.com.
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Napan's blog a finalist in Peace Corps contest
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