One Couple's Path to Senior Walk and Beyond Together

After a chance meeting in a laundry room during their freshman year at the University of Arkansas, Grace Martin and Jack Norris fell in love. Five years later, their paths took them halfway across the globe to Paraguay as Peace Corps volunteers. 

“Jack and I met in the laundry room of Hotz [Hall],” says Grace, who graduated in 2024 with degrees in chemical engineering and food science. “He had forgotten his detergent, and I let him borrow some of mine. To pay me back, he took me out for coffee, and we've been together ever since.” 

Grace, who also minored in math and Spanish, was already planning to join the Peace Corps. “My parents and many of their friends were Peace Corps Volunteers, so I grew up hearing about their experiences,” she says. “I loved their stories about life in other countries and how genuine their connections to those countries are.” 

She says another factor in her decision to join the Peace Corps before medical school was her desire to learn skills that are important for physicians, like empathy, intercultural communication and resilience, which can be difficult to acquire in a classroom. “I also hoped to find lifelong friends the way my parents did!” she says. 

During her time on campus, Grace volunteered with Dream B.I.G., a middle school mentorship program through the Volunteer Action Center.  

“Planning and facilitating the mentoring sessions helped me get used to leading activities for youth,” she says. “My Spanish minor was also great preparation.” 

Jack, who also graduated in 2024 with a degree in computer science, says the extensive volunteer experiences he had at the U of A, such as working with the International Students and Scholars program as a cross-cultural mentor, allowed him to meet people from all over the world. He also found a love of service at the Volunteer Action Center working with the Be B.O.L.D. program, another middle school mentoring program. 

He rounded out his computer science-heavy schedule with classes across Walton, Fulbright and Bumpers colleges and took every opportunity he could to study abroad. 

“These experiences taught me plenty, but their real effect was to sharpen my curiosity about the world and the people in it,” he says. Those experiences, as well as the “fascinating stories from Grace's parents,” catalyzed his decision to join the Peace Corps. 

“After countless nights spent combing through wikis, blogs and official sites to learn more about the Peace Corps and its goals,” he says, “I knew I had to give it a go.” 

The couple completed the Peace Corps Prep certificate offered by the Office of Study Abroad, and the staff was helpful during the application process, they say. 

“Two weeks after graduation,” Jack says, “Grace and I hopped on a plane to Paraguay." 

Once in Paraguay, the couple both served as community health volunteers in a small rural community, working with schools and the local clinic to establish initiatives that teach and promote healthy habits among young people. The couple worked together on all their projects: “We gave health presentations in schools, ran youth sport clubs and conducted exercise classes for adults and teenagers,” Jack explains. He says they also helped build and source an outdoor community gym, a computer lab and a library. 

This past July, their time with the Peace Corps came to an end, and the couple came back home to Arkansas.  

Grace was accepted into the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, where she’ll study to become an obstetrician/gynecologist. 

Jack says after this summer's over, he'll move to Atlanta to earn his M.S. in computational science and engineering. When he graduates in 2028, he'll move to New York to pursue his interest in the intersection of medicine and computer science – and to be closer to Grace. 

Though their paths are diverging for now, they are both excited for the opportunities that lie ahead and plan to return to Arkansas after their studies. 

See more stories like Jack and Grace's on our My Path to Senior Walk and Beyond website. Know of a student or recent alum who would make a great candidate to be featured here? Fill out our online nomination form.