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September 11, 2009

Peek, in center, with children at Orphanage Emmanuel in Honduras.

Kaley Peek ’08 decided to spend nearly a year attending an organic farming school in Japan and volunteering at an orphanage in Honduras before beginning dental school this fall.

Peek first heard about the organic farming school, the Asian Rural Institute in Nishinasuno, Japan, from a friend at PC, Kelly Byers ’07.

“She went there for the summer one year and loved it,” Peek said. “She came back full of new ideas, such as planting a garden at PC.”

During her junior year, Peek, along with Byers and others, planted a garden. She continued to learn more about gardening her senior year, planting two more gardens and forming the Blue Thumb Garden Club. Peek even talked about the experience with Martha Stewart on her TV show. She then decided to travel to the organic farming school after graduating.

Working at organic farming school

Peek harvests rice at the Asian Rural Institute in Japan.

“After becoming interested in gardening I really wanted to learn more,” she said. “Since I had decided to take a year off between graduation and dental school, it was the perfect opportunity.”

From August through November of last year, Peek volunteered at the Asian Rural Institute, an organic farming school that teaches rural community leaders from Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands how to produce sustainable agriculture. The school itself is 80% self-sustainable, growing their own foods and buying only a few items such as salt and sugar.

Peek hoed rows, planted, weeded, and tended to and harvested vegetables. She milked and fed cows and fed the fish, ducks, rabbits, chickens, and pigs. In addition, she and three women from Japan, one from Myanmar, and one from Spain cooked lunch everyday.

“It was such a learning experience cooking and sharing stories with these women from different backgrounds,” Peek said. “And the food was the best I've ever eaten.”

People from nearly 25 different nations attended the school. For the first two months Peek was the only American.

“It was an incredible place to be and learn,” she said, “because we had such an incredibly diverse group of people living there.”

Volunteering at orphanage in Honduras

When she came home, she arrived just in time to drive to Augusta, Georgia to interview at the Medical College of Georgia School of Dentistry.

With her interview behind her and dental school still months away, Peek decided to volunteer. She remembered a conversation she had with a woman at her church four years ago.

“She told me about an orphanage in Honduras that had a brand new dental clinic, and she thought that I should go there,” Peek said. “So four years later, I did.”

Peek volunteered at Orphanage Emmanuel in Honduras from January through June. Since only 17 people work at the orphanage that is the home to nearly 400 children, the facility relies heavily on volunteers.

As the clinic volunteer, Peek bandaged cuts, drove children to the hospital, gave out medicine, slept in the clinic with sick children. She also helped in the dental clinic when dental teams arrived, assisting the dentists and translating. She also cut hair, painted, organized movie and game nights, helped with the toddlers and children with special needs, sang in the choir, and more.

“It was a totally life-changing experience,” Peek said. “It made me so deeply thankful for the life I have and for all of the opportunities I have had.”

During and after PC

Peek, whose mother is a dental hygienist, knew she wanted to become a dentist in the seventh grade, when she noticed how much doctors and dentists helped people on a mission trip she took to Costa Rica. At PC, she majored in music and minored in biology and chemistry. She took additional courses in her minors to prepare her for dental school. She began classes at the Medical College of Georgia on August 17.

“I don't have definite plans for where I'll go after I graduate,” Peek said, “but I know my eventual goal will be some form of mission work.”

Peek volunteered often at PC. As a freshman, she helped with Big Sisters and Girl Scouts at Thornwell. As a sophomore, she started leading Girl Scouts and continued to lead the program through her senior year. She volunteered with Special Olympics, participated in Project Life, Relay for Life, and other Student Volunteer Services programs.

As the SVS Thornwell intern her senior year, Peek coordinated all Thornwell volunteer programs, including Thornwell Girl Scouts, Thornwell Dance, and the Big Brother/Big Sister Program. She was also a member of Bluefish her senior year.

In addition, Peek was involved with Students for Environmental Education, Presbyterian Student Association, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, PC Choir, Armonia! (women's choir), PC Ringers (handbell choir), Delta Omicron (Music Honors Society), Omicron Delta Kappa (Leadership Honors Society), Beta Beta Beta (Biology Honors Society), Sigma Kappa Alpha (Academic Honors Society), intramurals, and the Wilderness Activity Program.  She graduated summa cum laude.

Peek with a child at Orphanage Emmanuel.