William Hershey had a career of more than 40 years covering Ohio government and politics.
He was the Akron Beacon Journal's Washington correspondent and Columbus Bureau Chief for the Beacon Journal and the Dayton Daily News.
He was also part of a team at the Beacon Journal that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1987.
But before all of that, he had a very informative experience in Ethiopia where he served as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1968 to 1970.
Hershey taught English to seventh and eighth graders in the small rural village of Dabat, where he lived in a modest house, and worked hard to integrate himself with the locals.
His recollections of his time in the Peace Corps has been collected into a book of essays called "Taking The Plunge Into Ethiopia."
The essays were originally published as columns in the Akron Beacon Journal, where he used his experiences in a foreign country to reflect on politics in his home country. He wrote about presidential elections, immigration policy, and our foreign influence across the world.
Hershey praises his time in the Peace Corps for opening up his eyes to other experiences, getting out of his comfort zone, and looking at the world through a broader lens.
Guests:
- William Hershey, Former Journalist and Author, "Taking The Plunge into Ethiopia: Tales of a Peace Corps Volunteer"
