WR Man Joins Peace Corps to Uganda

A Warner Robins man is moving more than 8,000 miles away to join the Peace Corps.

In less than a week, 26-year-old Jake Carpenter will pack up the bare necessities, perhaps a digital camera, and he’ll say goodbye to family and friends.

“I have been spending a lot of time thinking about the people that I love and all the people that I’m going to miss and that’s been sort of difficult.”

A former Northside High athlete, Carpenter is a Mercer graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering. He hopes his education and experience will help improve the lives of others.

“My background in that and specifically my training at USF which is a development engineering program I think will enable me to help people in a developing world address those issues.”

Jake will spend the first three months living with a host family in Uganda where he’ll get a firsthand look at the language and culture. Then he’ll serve two years, living just like everyone else in the community.

“What I want to accomplish is to go to my community to meet them, to understand them, to know them and to trust them and for them to gain my trust and to help them accomplish the goals that they want to accomplish.”

Carpenter will join more than 200 Georgia residents currently serving in the Peace Corps.