When Alexandra Stavros was working on her application to the University of Michigan, she wrote about wanting to join the Peace Corps. While she didn’t know what field she wanted to work in, she knew joining the Peace Corps was part of her end goal.

It wasn’t until she took her International Studies 401 course on International Education that everything clicked.

“I’ve always been interested in education but that class allowed me to look beyond the education system I grew up in and into the hundreds of other ways countries do it and what worked and what hasn’t. The class piqued my interest and that drew me to the Peace Corps Prep Program at Michigan,” Stavros said.

In addition to her work on international education systems, Stavros used the flexibility of an International Studies degree to study public health systems in Washington D.C., Vietnam, South Africa, and Argentina during her junior year.

After graduation from the International Security, Norms and Cooperation sub-plan of International Studies and with minors in Community Action & Social Change and Religion, Stavros has accepted an invitation to teach English with the Peace Corps in Ukraine.

“Thank you Mom, Dad, Adam, and Rex for opening the world up to me through the opportunity of education, encouraging me to follow my passions, and supporting me through the (mostly) ups and (once in a while) downs that made up my time at the University of Michigan,” Stavros said.

Alexandra Stavros

BA International Studies (International Security, Norms and Cooperation); minor in Community Action & Social Change, minor in Religion ‘20

Hometown: Brighton, MI

Affiliations: Camp Kesem, Sigma Iota Rho

Future plans: “I accepted an invitation to work in higher education with Peace Corps in Ukraine!”

Fondest memory of her experience in PICS: “The support that PICS gave me before, during, and after studying abroad! This was an experience that I will never forget, and I have never learned more in my life than studying in Vietnam, South Africa, and Argentina for a semester.”

Is there anything you would like to express to your peers, parents, professors, or others?:

“Thank you Mom, Dad, Adam, and Rex for opening the world up to me through the opportunity of education, encouraging me to follow my passions, and supporting me through the (mostly) ups and (once in a while) downs that made up my time at the University of Michigan. I am so grateful to you all.”