By Cory Emory

While most college graduates are racing toward more money and greater opportunity, one Los Altos woman is putting on the brakes and looking around. Valerie Faillace, Princeton graduate and former Morgan Stanley financial analyst, set her career aside in search of something she said was “emotionally fulfilling, physically draining, intellectually eye opening - and fun.” Faillace became a volunteer.

Raised in Los Altos, Faillace graduated from Los Altos High School in 1994, then moved East to attend Princeton. After college, she worked as an investment banking financial analyst at Morgan Stanley for three years, before volunteering with CARE Corps in South America.

“I spent two years traveling on business trips to Latin America as a financial analyst and was looking for a longer-term stay in the region to immerse myself more thoroughly in the experience of living as many Latin Americans do,” Faillace said.

Faillace went with CARE Corps to Ayacucho, Peru, a farming community located in the central Andes and birthplace of the 1980s terrorist group Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path). There, she helped local women prepare lunch for schoolchildren and the elderly, and taught English in the afternoons.

“The women with whom I worked had lost their husbands to the terrorists. Many of the children to whom I served meals and taught English had lost their fathers. Each person had her own horror story to share,” Faillace said. The kitchen’s supervisor, Dona Maria, told Faillace how one night the Sendero dragged her husband from their home and set him on fire. She was left alone to support six children.

Shelby French, CARE Corps coordinator, said, “For 20 years, the region endured horrific violence resulting from the conflict between the government and the Shining Path. Today the area is stable, but we still remain alert to any changes in the situation. It’s a great opportunity for the volunteers to see a community rebuilding itself after years of terrorism and isolation.”

Despite the possible danger, Faillace and many volunteers like her are giving their personal time to face hazards and look into the darkness of poverty, in hopes of improving people’s lives within the communities they work in.

“Los Altans, like most Americans, want to apply their ingenuity and energy to help people who are trying to help themselves. Coming to terms with the challenges the Peruvians and Bolivians face as part of their everyday lives required a willingness to face the reality of poverty. All told, it required a much greater psychological effort than I had anticipated,” Faillace said.

CARE Corps is a non-profit program operated as an alliance between CARE and Cross-Cultural Solutions. The program was started through a planning and development grant from the New York-based foundation Atlantic Philanthropies. There are three components to the program, French said - “service, cultural exchange and community outreach upon return.”

For more information on CARE, call (877) CARE-VOL or (914) 632-7788, or e-mail carecorps@care.org. For information on volunteering abroad, logon to www.goabroad.com.