Bridgett McDevitt, a Peace Corps volunteer, was the guest speaker at the March 1, 2017, meeting of Grosse Pointe Rotary. (A brownout, most likely due to heavy winds, threatened to cancel the weekly Wednesday evening Rotary meeting at The War Memorial; however, with the help of a generator and candles, the show — and Bridgett's presentation — went on!)
 
Bridgett was a member of Interact at GP South who attended Denison University and studied abroad in Ecuador for a semester. (At the same time, her family was hosting Prisi Calderon, a 2012-13 exchange student from Ecuador). Her interest in being a volunteer developed from her time abroad and the fact that her father was a Peace Corps volunteer himself.  

Bridgett served from 2014-16, teaching English as a second language to 11th-graders in Ethiopia. After three months of learning the national language of Amharic, she taught at the only high school in the city of Mehal Meda, about 180 miles from the capital. Her class size was between 30 to 50 students and one of her projects was to set up a pen pal exchange with Interact Advisor Kevin Cox’s students at South High School.
 
In addition to classroom teaching, Bridgett helped with extracurricular writing and vocabulary clubs and, in the summer, she helped run local camps.  
Bridgett’s knowledge of Ethiopia’s culture and history was extensive, and she gave a great presentation.
 
(Photo by John Minnis)