Doug Sprankling: Crossing the cultural divide
By Elizabeth Kim,
HUB Correspondent–
Doug Sprankling, a 25 year-old former Peace Corps volunteer, is the black sheep of his family.
“My parents and brother are all lawyers, but I was never interested in the law, probably because my parents and brother are all lawyers,” Sprankling said.
He chose volunteering and writing grants over lawyering.
As a high schooler at Davis High, Sprankling played the trumpet in the band, performed mock trials in English, and was a reporter for The HUB. Sprankling was also a friendship day facilitator and formed the Captain Planet Club—based off an educational kids’ show about an environmental superhero—with his friend.
After high school, Sprankling attended Princeton as an English major and by college graduation, he was accepted into the Peace Corps.
“Being accepted was enormously exciting, especially when I found out I was going to Burkina Faso, since I’d always loved the name of its capital, Ouagadougou. It’s got ‘Doug’ right there in the middle,” Sprankling said.
The first Peace Corps volunteer that Sprankling met was his DHS chemistry teacher, David Van Muyden, who lost a toe while serving. Sprankling found this cool because “toes are the worst.”
“I suppose high school did indirectly help me as a Peace Corps volunteer […] A handful of close friends and amazing teachers gave me a firm foundation and prepared me academically and socially for later life,” Sprankling said.
Sprankling became a health volunteer and helped villagers become aware of different dangers like malaria and malnutrition.
“The best part of Peace Corps was forming deep, lasting friendships with so many people different from me in every possible way. It seems pretty rare to be able to make such deep connections across such a massive cultural divide,” Sprankling said.
After two years of service, Sprankling works in San Francisco, Calif. for a non-governmental organization (NGO) called One Acre Fund, which is located in Kenya. His primary job is to write grants for the organization which helps farmers. Sprankling left for Kenya on Sept. 20 to get field experience with the NGO.
“It’s crazy to me that I started high school more than ten years ago. Everything in life happens so gradually— I’m a very different person now, but I never remember changing. My experiences and passions just carried me to a lot of interesting situations, which ended up shaping who I am. I am a leaf on the wind,” Sprankling said.
