A Manilla native ended up back home in mid-March after being evacuated from rural Thailand, where she was in her 15th month of Peace Corps service as an English teacher. “We got orders from [the] Peace Corps to evacuate, a process that began March 12,” says 26-year-old Veronica King. “I got on a bus to Bangkog, and figured out how to get home, flying from there to Japan to Texas and on to Iowa. I then self-quarantined when I got home,” King adds. And since she has arrived in Manilla, she has been busy planning for the next steps of a career that will include education—for her as well. King never thought she would end up being a teacher when she studied and received a degree in history from Buena Vista University (BVU) in 2016. But she says she learned to love teaching and now wants to pursue a master’s degree for teaching English. And she wants to do that in Wales. “I was able to study abroad during my time at BVU and I fell in love with the United Kingdom,” says King, who lived in England while earning a master’s in early modern history at the University of York. From there, she taught for two years in high schools before joining the Peace Corps and teaching 240 students from five to 11 years old in the Isan region of Thailand. She has now set her sights on one day teaching English in South Korea. But until then, she is happy to plan for her future, wherever that may take her. “I’m still trying to get to that career point,” King says. “It’s been a journey!”
