By Peggy McInerny, Director of Communications

Yondonjamts Jigjidsuren (UCLA 2022) spent the past three years as a student mentor and teacher, first in Boyle Heights, then in Cambodia as a Peace Corps volunteer. He worked with the local community in his Cambodian town to create a computer lab for students, leaving a lasting legacy.

UCLA International Institute, October 20, 2025 — Yondonjamts Jigjidsuren (UCLA 2022, B.A. global studies/ public affairs minor) wanted to serve in the Peace Corps ever since a high school teacher shared her experiences as a volunteer in Jamaica. “I went on to UCLA seemingly forgetting this encounter until an online career fair in the midst of the pandemic, when I rediscovered the Peace Corps and began preparing my application,” he said.

Originally, the Bruin alumnus intended to serve in a community development program in Moldova, but an unexpected delay prompted him to join the Americorps City Year program in Boyle Heights, where he spent a year working as a mentor and tutor to middle school students. “Even in Los Angeles, each neighborhood and mini-city has a distinct culture and vibe. I learned so much from working in a different community than mine,” he reflected.

That experience and its impact on students led him to serve as an education volunteer in the Peace Corps, where he taught English to high school students in a small rural town in northwestern Cambodia for two years, ending in summer 2025.

“Where I lived in Cambodia is a direct result of globalization and global trade networks, ” said Yondonjamts. “There are vast numbers of seasonal workers and, most importantly, children being mostly raised by older family members, such as grandparents, while their parents are away working abroad.

“To live in a village where the direct result of global trade and networks shape family relationships, community culture and the economy, was an experience that I truly couldn’t have understood no matter how many books or articles I read.

“I was teaching rural Cambodian teenagers how to speak English fluently, so they can move to the cities and work in tourism, international companies or NGOs. All of these jobs were tied to the processes of globalization.

“My students wanted to learn English, French, Mandarin, basic ITC (information technology and communications) skills and study in a university because the forces of globalization, global networks and trade have created a demand for these skills. It was a powerful lesson to learn firsthand.”

Peace Corps service leaves lasting impacts

As is often true of people who volunteer for the Peace Corps, Yondonjamts’s time in Cambodia left a lasting impact on the students and small town where he taught English, as well as on the Bruin himself.

The young UCLA graduate poured his heart into his job, teaching English six days a week, including multiple hours of English clubs on the weekends for students whose parents were away working. “Spending time with my students in the hot April sun, playing games, reading stories and laughing together, made my first year unforgettable,” he reflected.

“During that year, I began to think about ways to aid my community, as Peace Corps volunteers in Cambodia are encouraged to embark on a ‘secondary project.’

“After working with my school administration and counterpart teachers, we all highlighted the need for a computer lab in the rural school.” Few students had access to computers at home and although they used smartphones widely, they tended to message through voice notes instead of typing.

So Yondonjamts went to work in his second year, preparing a grant application and then raising funds from his community in the U.S. to purchase 20 laptops from Phonm Penh. “Getting the grant fully approved meant I had to do a lot of planning, sit in meetings and ensure that the computer lab remained a vital resource to the community free of charge,” he related.

“The local community in Cambodia came together and also did fundraising, which completely paid for the repair, electrical wiring and Wi-Fi upgrades needed for computer room at the school,” he said. “They put time and effort into making sure their kids will have access to vital digital skills in the future, making the lab an ongoing resource.”

By May 2025, the computer lab was up and running and over 30 students were learning basic typing skills using software programs such as ‘Khmer Basic Typing’ and ‘Mario Typing.’ “My counterparts at the school with IT skills stepped up to become workshop leaders for staff, who also wanted to learn to type,” explained Yondonjamts.

The Bruin alum also created an essential sustainability plan for the lab, including an IT curriculum (developed with the assistance of IT-university educated teachers with experience teaching computer concepts), maintenance and repair services. The latter will be provided by teachers with the relevant skills and the director of a private computer lab in the town. “My school has plans to even add computers and upgrade the room to handle air conditioning,” he noted.

The impact of his Peace Corps service on Yondonjamts has also been profound. “This was the first time I lived in a rural setting. I grew up in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, a bustling city north of 1.6 million residents, and then my family moved to Los Angeles, a massive cosmopolitan entity of a city.

“It surprised me how much calm and tranquility I found in the rural setting,” he reflected. “My previous life was all work and quite fast paced. In my village, I could spend all day sitting on a hammock, reading books or biking on a dirt road that seemed to stretch into the horizon. It surprised me how great it is to sometimes slow down and appreciate the art of living — the art of experiencing — whether it is ‘productive’ or not.”

Looking ahead, Yondonjamts plans to apply to graduate programs in public administration or education and pursue a career where he can apply his administrative, policy writing and project design skills. We look forward to hearing from him in the future.

Published: Monday, October 20, 2025