NHS Graduate Returns

After Peace Corps Stint In The Ukraine

By Laurie Borst

Greg Higgins has always had an interest in business. As he puts it, “I’ve always had a job.” He first started working, just down the street from his home, at Castle Hill Farm. Steve Paproski, owner of the farm, always told Mr Higgins he was a businessman. And, perhaps serendipitously, the Paproski family has roots in the Ukraine where Mr Higgins recently served with the Peace Corps.

Mr Higgins grew up on Sugar Lane where his parents, Bill and Antoinette, still live with the family dog, Daisy. Mr Higgins has one sister, Sara, who is a pastry chef.

Mr Higgins has fond memories of Newtown High School, from which he graduated in 1997, “It was a really nice setup then, before the addition; that was started my senior year. I remember the teachers were great,” Mr Higgins said. He specifically mentioned Kurt Ryder, the graphic arts teacher. “It was a fun class,” Mr Higgins recalled. During high school, he belonged to the Future Business Leaders of America club.

After graduating, he went to Central Connecticut State University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business and computers. “After Central, I joined the Peace Corps and was living in Ukraine for two years to work with a charity organization named Dobrota,” he said.

Dobrota is Russian for kindness. Through this organization, Mr Higgins visited many orphanages and jails. He worked educating Ukrainians on Western business practices, i.e. budgeting, website development, and transparency or making books available to potential donors or auditors.

Before going to Russia, Mr Higgins had no knowledge of the language; the Peace Corps provides language instruction once a volunteer reaches his destination. It is a total immersion approach to learning a language. “It was easier to learn Russian there because I had the opportunity to go out on the street after class and speak the language with the people,” Mr Higgins said of the training.

While in Ukraine, Mr Higgins wrote a grant that was awarded by the American Embassy in Kiev to develop programming systems. “My IT background came in very useful,” he said.

“The former Soviet states are moving forward. The people are motivated to improve their country,” Mr Higgins said of his impressions of current conditions. “Seven months after my tour ended, I went back and was amazed by all the changes in that short period of time.”

Mr Higgins left Ukraine before the Orange Revolution. This nonviolent revolution took place after the hotly contested presidential election of November 2004. Incumbent Viktor Yanukovich and his people claimed victory while exit polls predicted challenger Viktor Yushchenko the winner. Borrowing the color of Yushchenko’s campaign, his supporters began the Orange Revolution, consisting of peaceful protests and sit-ins. Eventually, Yushchenko was officially declared the winner.

“I’d like to go back now and see what changes have occurred,” he said. While he has not been back to Ukraine, he has visited other former soviet states including Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Kazakhstan on business. Mr Higgins currently works for the US Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) in Washington, D.C.

CRDF is a nonprofit organization that works in nonproliferation in the former Soviet Union. Mr Higgins works with scientists who are doing research and teaching.  He helps with the implementation of new school building projects.

Mr Higgins has been accepted to the Masters of Public Administration program at George Mason University in Arlington, Va. He begins that program this fall.

While his life is now quite cosmopolitan, he says, “I love coming back to Newtown to visit. I like to smell the freshness in the air and to hear the sounds of wildlife, like the crickets.”