Meleia Rose started her Peace Corps journey as an education volunteer in Malawi. Her Peace Corps service was transformational, and she was so passionate about the organization, she went from volunteer to staff almost immediately after service. She started as a Peace Corps recruiter in 2010, and two years later became the Third Goal Program Specialist. This role was a dream job for her, championing the Peace Corps family and impact in all its glory. In this role she was able to attend several PC Iran conferences!
Since leaving Peace Corps HQ in 2018, she has worked at EPA and DOT in a number of program management and learning specialist roles. She is currently at OPM.
In her free time, she enjoys yoga, bird watching, and spoken word art (storytelling and poetry). Travel is a central passion of hers (shocker), and the hotter the weather the better. She lives with her husband Alex, their 4 year old son, Walker, and their 59 house plants in Washington DC.
During her time at PC HQ as a recruiter, she wrote a poem to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps. That poem got a lot of attention and accolades. So much so that when the director decided PC should have an inspiration pledge at swearing in, alongside the mandated oath of office, she asked Meleia to write it. It became official in 2015, and since then countries have been creatively celebrating the start of volunteers service by reciting the pledge often translated into the host country language.
Today Meleia will recite her poem that allowed her the honor of authoring the Peace Corps pledge.