Standing in an orphanage classroom, 6,400 miles from Gambier, Athene Cook '13 leaned on her experience as an apprentice teacher at Kenyon to cope with children learning English in Mongolia.

Among the twenty-six countries served by the international volunteer program Projects Abroad, Cook chose to spend a month this summer in one of the world's most remote places. "Mongolia just stood out because I knew so little about it," she said.

Cook lived with a host family in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, where she taught English to children ages eight through fourteen and university students. It was her first time on her own—in a foreign country or in the classroom. She taught in a basement with a blackboard, chalk, and language dictionary. "I didn't have a whole lot provided for me, but the enthusiasm of all my students and their eagerness to learn made my job easier," she said. "Mongolia only recently democratized (1990). It remains a poor country that sees English as a gateway to prosperity."

Her experience last year as an apprentice teacher under Professor of Chinese Jianhua Bai in the Kenyon Intensive Language Model helped prepare Cook for the classroom challenges in Mongolia, sharpening her communication skills and informing her lesson plans. The classes she taught in Mongolia replicated the classes she taught at Kenyon.

Projects Abroad places university students and professionals in short-term service projects. Cook applied because she wanted to do something meaningful this summer. With more than one million people, Ulaanbaatar exposed her to a juxtaposition of nomadic traditions and modern society. "It is very Western, to a great extent, with exposure to our fashion, music and television, but hot water was one Western commodity I lacked the majority of the time."

Despite the obstacles, Cook finished each day pleased with her progress as a teacher and the impact she was making on the lives of her students. Growing up in Iowa, "I never dreamed I would end up living in Mongolia, but I would love to go back," she said.