We try to filter out the airwaves as they bombard our living rooms with news of civil unrest in the Middle East, sleazy politicians and celebrities earning substantial sums to air their abhorrent lifestyles. Yet there is still a sliver of hope that our young adults’ filters are cleaner than ours and that before the dust settles, a few will still hunger to improve lives around the world. Sara Hughlett is doing just that. She is a member of the Peace Corps.

I have to admit that even I have only a vague recollection of the few who escaped our cookie cutter suburban dwelling and donned their sandals and chinos to pursue their altruistic passions. A recent newspaper article celebrating the Peace Corps’ 50th anniversary reminded me that more than 200,000 Americans have served in 139 countries, promoting peace and international friendship, since its inception by President John F. Kennedy in 1961.

Then along came Sara. She stands all of 5’3”, but don’t let her small stature fool you. At only 23, she has reached heights unknown to many young adults these days, who spend their days scouring the want-ads for jobs they usually don’t want, in an economy that doesn’t want to budge.

Sara is spending two years in Romania teaching English to multi-level students. After graduating from George Mason University, she grabbed her “ice gripping” boots and long underwear and launched her ambitions in a different direction than most. If adventure and destiny wouldn’t come to her, she’d go to them. Her blog at www.sarainromania.blogspot.com is a how-to diary for any young woman who wants to pursue the same path. It is a fun read, full of quirky stories of sheep herders, train station mishaps, culinary delights (and some not so delightful), friendships made and, yes, homesickness. But her homesickness is fleeting as she constantly photographs her surroundings—awed by the beauty and people around her. Her humor is delightful and infectious in posts with titles like, “You Know You’re in Romania If...”

Life is not all lesson planning and classroom work. Sara and her friends sometimes head out to the city’s local clubs, where they get their fill of hip-hop music and dancing. However, it is the projects that consume her waking hours, including creating a “green school” where they focus on recycling, planting a garden, and scheduling dances at the high school.

Sara imbibes the qualities of the Peace Corps mindset and its value system. Her influence reaches far beyond her volunteer work, and her students bring her as much joy and laughter as the knowledge she brings them.

Sara’s two-year assignment will have her returning home in the summer of 2012. Her intermittent homesickness is cured by visits from friends and family and their support is her mainstay. She lights up when she gets packages from home of hard-to-find comfort items that we often take for granted, like heavy-duty scotch tape, Reese’s Pieces (her fave), and hot chocolate (with marshmallows, which she didn’t miss until she couldn’t find them). A small stipend keeps her cupboards stocked, a warm bed and a roof over her head. Without a Coach outlet, a Starbucks or a strip mall to be found, her life still overflows with the simplicity that surrounds her. There will be plenty of opportunities for the long lines at Costco, commuter traffic and culinary indulgences when she comes home.

With proposed budget cuts in Congress threatening volunteer programs such as AmeriCorps (a domestic form of the Peace Corps), necessary services to communities and the people they serve are being threatened. The academic, vocational and life-skills training provided to young people is priceless. For now, Sara is thriving in the moment. She knows she is right where she is supposed to be and savors the opportunity to serve. And as she munches on her large “shoarma” (pita filled with chicken, cabbage and onions), she compares the abundant sandwich to her current situation, and says, “You gotta go big, or go home.” And besides, the warm weather is right around the corner and to this volunteer, life springs eternal. Send sunscreen…

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Catherine DeCenzo is a freelance writer living in the Broadlands. She prefers the glass-half-full, humorous side of life and has an appetite for the irreverent in her personal blog at catclause.wordpress.com.