Olivia is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer.
Previously, she was the Multimedia and Communications Coordinator for Peace Corps Madagascar. Before that, she taught English to middle school students in the deep South of Madagascar, while learning about the island's rich culture. This blog was selected as winner, among 350 applicants worldwide, for Peace Corps' Blog It Home contest.
She was raised in New Jersey, but she has the desire to travel the world and experience different cultures, meet unique people and live life through new perspectives. She graduated from Rutgers University in 2013 with a bachelors degree in Journalism and media studies and English. She was the managing editor and design editor ofThe Daily Targum, Rutgers' student-run, daily newspaper. She was also the founding editor-in-chief of HerCampus.com/Rutgers, a Division I rower on the women's crew team, and a member of the triathlon team. After graduation she landed a job at The Record newspaper, covering northern New Jersey, and at digital news site Kicker, covering just about everything. Her work has been published in The Record and northjersey.com, goKicker.com, The Huffington Post, BBC Travel, The Daily Targum, and HerCampus.com. Above all, Olivia hopes her stories can connect worlds, no matter the distance between the two (because understanding is key).
In her free time, she loves to run, decorate cake pops and pet strangers' dogs.