Stephen Fox served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Thailand 34 group from 1971 to 1975. He taught English in a boys' high school in Burriram, in northeast Thailand near the Cambodian border. The area is heavily influenced by the Khmer empire, which sparked Fox's interest in archaeology. He asked to live with a student and was given a stilt house to share with one of the school’s best English students, who became a life-long friend. During the first year, Fox helped to develop enrichment materials for the English for Thai Students textbook. After two years teaching, he spent another two years as a volunteer working at the Ministry of Education in Bangkok to rewrite the textbook. He recounts going to Phnom Penh just before it fell, and describes a cross-border sugar smuggling operation during the war. Through the Peace Corps, Fox discovered his love of living in foreign cultures and eventually joined the Foreign Service. He believes that the Peace Corps had a significant impact on USAID and the Foreign Service because so many former volunteers have worked for both agencies. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, October 18, 2016. 1 digital file.