Thousands of young people were inspired by President Obama's call for national service during last year's election campaign. Applications are up for several programs, including Teach for America, AmeriCorps and Peace Corps.

“I think Americans are more engaged in the world today,” said Peace Corps Director Aaron Williams in the Nov. 15 issue of Parade magazine.

Three area young people are among thousands who are providing basic services to needy people both in the U.S. and overseas. Here are their stories:

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Finding a goat head on the countertop in her Namibian host family's kitchen was an early cross-cultural shock for Aly Martin in 2007, as she began a two-year assignment as a Peace Corps volunteer teacher in the southern African country.

“I was completely freaked out,” said the 25-year-old graduate of Bishop Dwenger High School and Miami University (Ohio), where she earned a degree in secondary English education.

“I had known since high school that I wanted to do international work,” Martin said in a phone interview from her village of Karibib. Peace Corps' goal of bringing expertise and skills to people at a community level appealed to her.

About half the 2,000 residents in Martin's village are from the Damara tribe and half from the Herero tribe. During training, Martin learned greetings in one of the “click” languages. She said some Namibians also speak Afrikaans, the national language of South Africa to the south.

The goat-head experience was one of many Martin encountered as she adapted to a foreign culture. “There is a special way you have to greet certain people, dress, do, say, eat and just communicate in general,” she said. “But you eventually adjust to the new culture and can barely remember what you would do in your own culture.”

Martin says the thing she misses most is definitely family and friends. After that, “having a car or other reliable transportation.” She relies on bakkies (pickups) and also hitchhikes.

“I think one of the greatest things that I have learned about myself is that if I think everything will eventually work out, it will. Peace Corps has taught me that sometimes things don't work out the way you planned them or hope for them to, but in the end it all comes together.”

With her two-year assignment ending in December, Martin applied for and received a third-year extension, starting Jan. 9. She will help develop new sites for volunteers and work with a youth organization focusing on girls. But first, she is eager to come home for the holidays on a one-month leave.

Martin's mother, Tracie, is selling handmade bracelets from Namibia as a fundraiser to buy a minibus to transport children out of the village for activities in town. The school will charge riders a fee to cover gas and repairs. To buy a bracelet for $10, contact Tracie Martin at tracie jean100@gmail.com.

You can follow Martin's adventures in Namibia at alymartin.blogspot.com.

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For city native Jason Beer, every day at his high school on the South Side of Chicago is an emotional and cultural challenge.

Beer, 25, is in his second year teaching English in the Teach for America program. His school's 350 students are low-income and 100 percent African American, reflecting the neighborhood. Beer, who is white, said the job is “definitely the toughest thing I've ever done. It has way beyond humbled me.”

Beer graduated from Northrop High School in 2003 and the University of Saint Francis, where he majored in English literature, in 2007. After graduation, he taught as a substitute locally for a year.

He was interested in teaching but didn't have an education degree. Then a friend mentioned Teach for America.

The first six months, Beer's goal was to get his classroom to a point where it could function. It was a “really chaotic situation,” he said. “There was a lot of hostility, anger, tension all the time; a lot of expectation that you want to control your class and have them listen to you.”

By midyear, they had read books, written a few essays and done a poetry slam in class. “It took a lot of relationship building, which I really believe in,” to get to that point, he said.

Defusing tension remains a daily chore. “I have to get the attention of kids who are fighting and bring it back to a humorous moment. It has forced me to be really creative in conflict resolution and lesson planning.”

His students, Beer said, are “really good kids, they just have a lot of baggage in their home situation … they're dealing with things that are more important than my assignments. I fail a lot more than I succeed, but you keep showing up.”

Beer and his wife, Cassie, often visit their parents in the Fort Wayne area, where Beer also draws support from his parents' church.

The congregation at Huntertown United Methodist Church, which Lydia and Greg Beer attend, has sent notes of encouragement, small donations and about 140 gift cards, which Beer hands out to students as an incentive.

When the school year ends, Beer may attend seminary or graduate school or continue teaching. “These kids need someone who's there for them who has high expectations.”

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Allie LeRoy, 24, was born in New Orleans and moved with her parents, David and Diane LeRoy, to Auburn as a baby. The 2003 DeKalb High School graduate will earn her bachelor's degree from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne this spring with a major in general studies and a minor in psychology.

In 2006 - partly to show her parents she was serious about looking for a job - she applied online to be an AmeriCorps volunteer.

LeRoy joined a team of 10 volunteers in July of that year and labored in the south on projects that lasted about six weeks each.

In New Orleans, as well as Biloxi, Pascagoula and Kiln, Miss., they did Hurricane Katrina relief work. In Beaumont, Texas, they cleaned up from Hurricane Rita. In Lexington, Ky., they rehabbed damaged homes for Habitat for Humanity and worked at a summer camp. In the Florida Keys, they worked with the Nature Conservancy to pick up litter on beaches and remove invasive species, such as pepper plants.

LeRoy's volunteer experience taught her the importance of working as a team to meet goals. “It's not good to depend only on yourself; you need other people around you,” she said.

For now, LeRoy is enjoying her class in community advocacy at IPFW and learning more about homelessness.

“I always want to be involved in the community and the world,” she said.

After she graduates, she is considering applying to Peace Corps, possibly to teach HIV/AIDS prevention.