Kate Asleson
Kate grew up in Minnesota, and quickly developed a love for travel thanks to all the long road trips with her family. She studied abroad in Australia, backpacked through Europe, studied tropical biology in Central America, explored the hutongs in Beijing, and drove around New Zealand in a packed campervan. Before joining the Peace Corps, Kate worked at a large advertising agency for three years. But after staying still for a few years the travel itch took over. So Kate and her husband ended up living on a small island 6 miles long in the South Pacific nation of Tonga with the Peace Corps, from 2008 – 2010. In Tonga she immersed herself in the culture, learned to cook from scratch, and made lifelong friends. Kate now works as a freelance advertising professional and writer, still taking every chance she gets to travel.

Steve Hunsicker
Steve Hunsicker is the South Florida based recruiter for Peace Corps.  Steve was a Peace Volunteer in the Kingdom of Tonga from 2007 to 2009 where he worked to help small business owners.  Each week during his Peace Corps service, Steve wrote stories about his adventures that are posted at blog.stevesadventure.com.  Before volunteering with the Peace Corps, Steve spent 23 years in Television News, including 15 years with Freedom Communications where he was most recently the Executive News Director for WPEC CBS 12, in West Palm Beach, Florida. Steve is an avid SCUBA diver and enjoys volunteering with the United Way.  He is a graduate of West Virginia University.

Jason Schneider
Jason currently lives in Marquette, Michigan where he serves as a city commissioner and manages an online retail business. He served in Peace Corps Tonga from 2007 to 2009 as a business and organizational development volunteer in ‘Eua where he shared his time assisting the tourism businesses to build their infrastructure, organizing youth development programs and occasionally teaching in the neighboring kindergarten. Jason grew up in California and moved to Michigan in ’96. He had traveled extensively for both work and school and decided that after a number of years staying put in small town Midwest it was time to go for a while, and ended up in ‘Eua exploring it enough to help out with this guide.

Shawn Quast
Shawn was born and raised in the Midwestern United States spending most of his time around the Great Lakes of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Chicago. Tired of wearing a suit to work every day, and in a bid to satisfy his hunger for travel, adventure, and helping those in need, he joined the United States Peace Corps. He was posted in the remote South Pacific island nation of the Kingdom of Tonga. It is here that he traded his suit and leather shoes for a skirt and flip flops, and went from rigid skyscrapers and sub-zero snowstorms to sandy beaches and swaying palm trees. He spent two months living with a local family in the village of Leimatua in Vava'u learning the language and culture before moving to Nuku'alofa to spend the next two years working as a business development volunteer. His main project was working with local fisherman to develop their business skills and had various secondary projects, from helping with marketing at a local resort to teaching tennis at a high school. It is also here where he met his girlfriend and fellow Peace Corps volunteer, whom he now lives with in Brisbane, Australia.