Magdalene

Co-President

Magdalene Mbaga served as an Education Volunteer in Tanzania from 2014-2016. She was assigned to be an English teacher, but found that her school was more interested in starting and ICT subject at the school. She spent much of her service founding the school’s first computer lab and ICT academic subject. During her service, her students took the ICT national examinations for the first time in the school’s history, and the subject continues to be taught by a local Tanzanian computer teacher. In addition to teaching ICT and English, she and her counterparts started an after-school Grassroots Soccer life skills club, which engaged students in games that taught them how to make good life decisions and protect themselves from infectious diseases. Magdalene also learned first-hand how important entrepreneurship is across Tanzania. Almost everyone in her village had at least one small enterprise going, and they are always working to improve their businesses with new skills and ideas. That's why when Magdalene and her counterparts took a training course on how to raise chickens she found people very excited to hear about what was taught. To share their knowledge and coordinate vaccination schedules, she and her counterparts then started a chicken-keeping cooperative. When all was said and done she and nine other families were raising chickens for food or to sell for extra income.

Before joining Peace Corps, Magdalene, a St. Paul native, worked in immigration law for nearly five years at a law firm in Minneapolis and for the Department of Homeland Security. She has a degree in Global Studies from the University of Minnesota and is also a certified ESL teacher. She speaks fluent German and Swahili. She currently works at Partners in Food Solutions, connecting small-and-growing food companies in Africa to industry experts at major food companies around the world, including General Mills, Hershey’s, and Cargill. She is currently pursuing a Masters of Global Business Administration at Tufts University.

Magdalene joined MNRPCV in 2017 and is serving on the Board as President and Editor of the biweekly MNRPCV Bulletin. She is excited to get to know the MNRPCV community better! Reach out to Magdalene at President@MNRPCV.org.