Jennifer Odom, a native of Gloucester and 2007 Gloucester High School graduate, has spent nearly two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Jamaica.
“My interest in agriculture is what led to my interest in the Peace Corps,” said Odom. During her four years at Gloucester High School, Odom was in Harrison Dixon’s agriculture/horticulture classes. She wanted to become a landscape designer after high school and had no interest in attending college, but her mother encouraged her to take some community college classes.
She first became interested in the Peace Corps while a student at Rappahannock Community College. Odom took an English class there where she was given a word and had to compile a portfolio describing that one word.
“My word was ‘peace’ and through that project I came across the U.S. Peace Corps and had it set in my mind that I’d volunteer one day,’ said Odom. “I felt that going deeper into the study of plant and soil science I would pose a help to farmers not only in Ameri...