Rising to the challenge

Senior Judith Johnson will take the biggest adventure of her life when she leaves to join the Peace Corps.

     She finished the triathlon, but that heaving, heavy feeling in her chest told her she had to quit smoking. "I need something to do a little bigger to keep me on task," she told herself.

     No more cigarettes? No problem, just increase the challenge.

     "I think my next (goal) will be to learn how to breakdance," she said. And this is how Johnson runs her life. One decision after the next - which usually leads to triumph - she moves her way toward the goal that she has had since she was a small child. Johnson cannot remember a time when she did not want to join the Peace Corps.

     Some 15 years and thousands of experiences later, that dream will become a reality when Johnson leaves this fall to teach English overseas. "I've wanted to serve in the Peace Corps since I was very small," said Johnson. "It's always been in the back of my head."

     Established by former President John F. Kennedy in 1961, the Peace Corps says its purpose is "to help change and improve the human condition at the grassroots level." It requires a commitment of three months of training and two years of work.

     There are 6,500 American volunteers serving in more than 80 countries, working in every field from education to business to agriculture. Johnson will join the 130 Pepperdine alumni who have worked in the Corps.

      For Johnson, the Peace Corps is not just an experience or something fun to do while she is young. It is a tool with which to establish a way of life. She wants to use the two years of overseas service to create a simple lifestyle and expand her worldview. Her hope is that spending her early adulthood this way will make her a servant for the rest of her days.

     "It's really hard when you have a job and you're so concerned about survival and the material world to even have time as a hobby to be involved in service," Johnson said. "That takes a lot, especially when you're young. Until you're established ... your job is your life. If I go into the Peace Corps, then that will be my life, and that will be what I know is a No. 1 priority."

     Her region of choice in finding this life of simplicity is the Caribbean and her means of service is ESL, teaching English as a second language. Johnson evaluated her skills and passions to choose a future that includes everything she truly loves. She chose to major in English, and because of her passion for literature she wants to pursue a career in writing children's books.

     The Peace Corps ties in with her long-established pattern of service through volunteerism. And she requested a job in the Caribbean simply because "it's so pretty."

     She may be stationed elsewhere, but there is a good chance that she will get her first choice when assignments are made in May. She is also undergoing extensive medical testing and treatment, receiving every shot you can think of, and even those you can't. But the Peace Corps seems to suit her so well that she has no anxieties about her upcoming adventure; she is simply excited that her life's dream is finally coming to fruition.

     "Service is my first and most important priority," she said. "And I kind of evaluate the rest of my life around what it is I love to do, which is literature."

     Her friends are excited that she has the opportunity to join the Corps. They see her as prime material for the organization. "She'll make worlds of difference," said Kai Schneider, one of Johnson's best male friends. "She's one of those people who changes people's lives. They're lucky to have her."

     Dr. Lee Ann Carroll, one of Johnson's English professors, believes that Johnson will be an overseas success. "She seems to have very good common sense and a quiet sense of humor," Carroll said. "She is open to new ideas, and, I think, will be very open to a new culture and new languages or dialects of English. I think she will be a kind and patient teacher."

     But before she leaves, Johnson will finish her last year of college and all the activities tied to it. She enjoys them to the fullest, taking advantage of every moment. Johnson does not sit at home waiting for life to touch her, she goes out and juices it for all it is worth.

     "We are so lucky: we go to school in Malibu," Johnson said. "I would feel so much like I was just wasting an opportunity if I didn't go out and see Malibu and see Los Angeles and be a part of the city."

     So she does. She and her friends go to the Hollywood Market for produce, eat breakfasts nearby at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, spend evenings at their favorite blues club (Harvell's in Santa Monica) go running on the beach and hit all the evening hot spots on the weekends.

     This time with her friends is one of the most important things in her life. Johnson even goes as far as saying that her friends are her heroes, simply because they are "so cool." They can tell how much she appreciates them, and they love her for it.

     Roommate Maegen Ribich says that Johnson will leave little notes around the house to show people that she cares for them. "She's the kind of person who, every morning and every night, she's asking 'How was your day?' and always caring," Ribich said. "And if things aren't good, she wants to make them better."

     Schneider sees Johnson as a devoted, servant-hearted friend. Calling her a homemaker, he gushes about how she brings him and his roommates baked goods almost daily, and how she offers to do their laundry for them. "She's one of those girls who's so well-rounded she'll make your jaw drop," he said. "She's a combination of everything wonderful."

     Apparently, many other Pepperdine students agree: Johnson was voted a princess on the 2000 Homecoming court. But the senior, who is beyond humble, said, "Too much attention. I was like, 'No!' "

     To help herself keep a positive outlook, Johnson decided to simplify her life last summer. She got rid of many of her clothes, believing that possessions increased her burdens. When she moved back to Malibu, she did not buy a bed until the spring semester, but instead opted to sleep on the floor. Nothing hangs on her walls except for pictures of friends that are clothes-pinned to a hanging bit of twine.

     It makes her feel happy and mobile to have so few things. While the bareness of her room fits with what she will be doing next year, she is not doing it to prepare herself. "I think, even if I wasn't going into the Peace Corps, I would still be the same," Johnson said. "I just don't need all this stuff."

    Rather than collecting things of her own, Johnson likes to invest in other people and in the world around her. She has done this by working in Pepperdine's Volunteer Center for three years. Much of her job has been creating publicity for the many programs that the center coordinates, in-cluding promoting literacy and spending time with the elderly.

     This semester, Johnson ran her own program with the organization Tree People. In February, Johnson drove a Pepperdine van full of students to the Sequoia National Forest, where they planted "so many trees." They repeated the venture later in the Los Padres National Forest.

     "I volunteer because I just know in my heart that it's right," Johnson said. "That's something that I'm called to do."

     She has also served in her sorority, Pi Beta Phi. In 1999, she was the vice president of social advancement, which meant that she coordinated pledging new women into the sorority. This was a significant time commitment. She had to meet with the pledges at least once a week last fall to teach them about the sorority.

     New member Kristin Starr said Johnson did a fantastic job. "I love her," Starr said. "She always was so enthusiastic about things, and caring, too."

     Johnson looks forward to the native myths and legends she will learn while serving with the Peace Corps, hoping to use them as ideas for the children's books she would like to write and illustrate as a career. Literature is her second passion after service. "I like to … read inspiring stuff," she said. "Writers seem to be able to encapsulate in words a lot of inspiration and vision. You can adapt that to your life."

     In one of her favorite novels, "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coehlo, a wise old man tells a treasure-seeking shepherd boy, "No heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity."

     She has adapted that inspiration into her life, and the Peace Corps will reap the benefits.