About Me

 I was an Agribusiness Advisor volunteer for the Peace Corps in Cameroon from 

September 2014 to November 2016.

My hometown is Argyle in upstate New York where I grew up raising all kinds of farm animals from sheep to chickens. I competed with my Australian Shepherds dogs in agility and herding. Also I showed my animals in 4-H at the Washington County Fair. I attended SUNY Adirondack for my Associates degree and SUNY Oneonta for my Bachelors in English where I was President of the Student Senate. I received my Masters in Leadership from SUNY Plattsburgh where I studied organizational development, management, communication, behavioral development, ethics, grant writing, public policy, learned how to fund raise/event plan in my internship at Luzerne Music Center, and interviewed leaders of county/state fairs for my thesis. I spent a couple years working in the trust/investment department at our local bank and volunteering on the Board of Directors of the Washington County Fair and Cornell Cooperative Extension. I realized that it was a good time in my life to live my dream of serving in the Peace Corps. 

With my background in agriculture and my education in leadership/management, I became an Agribusiness Advisor in Cameroon. My main work in my village was a Soy Project that I inherited from another volunteer. I collaborated with Cameroon government organizations in order to train farmers on how to grow soy, transform it into soy milk & tofu, and sell the products as a business. I also had other smaller projects including a soy cooperative, distributing LuminAid solar lights, and organizing a volleyball club at my village's primary school. It was wonderful to find the ASEED orphanage and be able to start a website for them in order to find donors and raise funds to help these abandoned children of Cameroon.

Now that I have returned from Cameroon, I am working for New York Farm Bureau in Albany, New York as the Associate Director of Public Policy. nyfb.org

My Peace Corps experience was amazing, difficult, and gave me a better understanding of our different cultures. I hope I shared some of my American life with Cameroon and I certainly learned so much from my Cameroonian friends. I am happy to be home with my family and friends, enjoying hot showers, and tapping trees with my father to make maple syrup. My two years in Cameroon were unforgettable, un-regrettable, and life changing.

Please contact me if you are thinking about joining Peace Corps and have questions. Also I am available to give presentations about Cameroon to groups at no cost.

My LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ren%C3%A9e-st-jacques-a0026828

Here is a link to a movie made up of videos from my time in Cameroon:
https://youtu.be/EOySrxCh_WE

Here is a link to a podcast on Abroad Life where I was interviewed about my experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon: 
http://abroadlife.us/episode-list/2016/5/9/episode-063

Post Star newspaper article: http://poststar.com/lifestyles/argyle-woman-bridges-cultures-one-seed-at-a-time/article_6f08524d-d5ba-5ca0-ba5e-56612d615c1e.html

My Dad, Mom, me, Lily kitty, & Finn after I returned home from Cameroon