Miami University

11/8/09

Kuttu, an impoverished island in Micronesia with no cars, no roads, no phones, no electricity and no running water is well on its way to getting a new school, thanks to 2005 Miami University graduate Suzi Noble.

Noble, an early childhood major, joined the Peace Corps in 2007 and was assigned to work on Kuttu Island in the Federated States of Micronesia, which consists of some 600 islands spread out over three time zones and a million square miles in the western Pacific Ocean.

In addition to day-to-day duties, Peace Corps volunteers are encouraged to choose a special project to assist their host nation. Noble’s project is to help residents of Kuttu build a school to serve students in kindergarten through eighth grade. The current school is so dilapidated that it leaks when it rains, and it rains almost every day. Often classes are cancelled.

A functional facility will allow more students from Kuttu to qualify to go to high school off island, which in turn will help more of them be accepted to a college.

Land for the school has already been donated, a community foundation formed and islanders have lined up to volunteer to build the facility. Because Micronesia is a former U.S. protectorate, grant money for materials for such projects can be requested through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rural development program.

But to be successful, a grant application must meet stringent requirements, including an architect’s certification that the planned school will be earthquake resistant. Hindered by the island’s isolation and lack of phone service or Internet connection, Noble has volunteered to stay in Micronesia an extra eight months to complete the grant process. She has moved to the regional capitol of Weno where she has access to communication tools and is confident that when she leaves Micronesia that the Kuttu Islanders will have met all the requirements to obtain needed funding.

“Suzi embodies what it means to be a transformative educator who values communities and works with them to create change,” said Tammy Schwartz, director of Miami’s Urban Teaching Cohort and one of Noble’s mentors.

Current school on Kuttu