GLOBE HOPPER TAKES NEW MISSION; HART HIGH GRADUATE HEADING TO POLAND.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Leslie Pravettone doesn't speak Polish but she is a seasoned world traveler who knows how to live modestly, has a zest for adventure and a desire to do good. In other words, she's Peace Corps material.

In June, the Hart High School graduate will leave the Santa Clarita Valley behind for a two-year tour of duty in Poland. For three months, she will live with a host family and undergo training in Radom, an industrial city of 230,000 in the former Communist nation.

After that, Pravettone will be sent to her permanent assignment, in a Polish city yet to be determined. There, she will teach English to teen-age students and help Polish adults improve their English fluency.

At 23, Pravettone knows that now is the ideal time in her life for this journey. She has graduated from college, is single and hasn't settled into the workaday grind of a career, although she has been a substitute teacher at most of the high schools and junior highs in the William S. Hart Union School District.

With her whole life stretching out before her, Pravettone said she's in no hurry to settle down when she may never again have the opportunity to be footloose. ``I already can't handle having a 40-hour-a-week job. I always think there's more out there. There's more interesting things to be doing,'' she said.

``Right now, it's perfect for me,'' Pravettone added. ``I'm not married. I don't have kids. I don't have an exciting job offer and haven't been looking for a job, because this is what I wanted to do.''

Besides, the prospect of working abroad has planted a seed in her mind that, Pravettone said, may lead her down a career path in the diplomatic corps, working for the foreign service in a U.S. embassy or consulate.

As a Peace Corps member, Pravettone will join the ranks of 6,500 Americans who are volunteers in the organization, established during the Kennedy administration. She will be one of 125 Peace Corps personnel assigned to Poland, added Dana Topousis, a spokeswoman for the Peace Corps recruiting office in Los Angeles.

Some still associate the Peace Corps with the 1960s, but Pravettone considers the agency relevant even as the millennium approaches.

``People have the misconception that Peace Corps volunteers are hippies out to save the world,'' Pravettone said. ``I think the most important aspect of Peace Corps is that volunteers are sent to help (only) where help is wanted. The countries invite Peace Corps to carry out a specific job,'' she said.

``Once a program has been established and is self-sufficient, Peace Corps leaves. This was important to me because I strongly believe in preservation of culture,'' Pravettone added, ``and I didn't want to be part of an organization that imposes ideals or ways of living upon another group of people.''

Prospective Peace Corps volunteers go through an extensive screening process that begins with an application and includes an interview, a background check and a full medical screening. Volunteers must be at least 18 years old, and there is no maximum age limit, Topousis said.

In fact, the group's ranks increasingly are including retirees; currently, the Peace Corps' oldest volunteer is 78, Topousis said.

The agency's emissaries are working in 83 countries, with Mozambique and Bangladesh to be added later this year. Volunteers' assignments fall under the broad categories of agriculture, health, education, business, environment and community services, Topousis said.

The agency, which is operating on a $226 million budget this year, supports its ranks with full health insurance coverage and a modest stipend that covers food, shelter and assorted living expenses, the spokeswoman noted. When she reports for her assignment, Pravettone will be one of about 900 Californians in the ranks.

``Since 1961, when the Peace Corps started, there have been more than 21,000 (volunteers) from California, which is by far the most from any state,'' Topousis added.

A 1997 graduate of the University of California, Irvine, Pravettone spent a year as an exchange student in Sweden. Midway through her stay in Scandinavia, she became fluent in Swedish - a scenario she expects will repeat itself once she is immersed in the Polish language and culture.

Of particular help will be the classroom presence of a bilingual Polish instructor to assist Pravettone with the English lessons, she said.

She hopes a natural facility for languages - a talent that emerged during her college days - also will help her get acclimated. ``I picked up Spanish pretty quickly. I went down to Mexico a lot and was a translator for a clinic that we opened up,'' she said.

During her year as an exchange student and after graduation, Pravettone traveled all over Europe, Scandinavia and the Pacific, sleeping in huts and under the stars and carrying all her belongings in a backpack for months at a time.

One of her stops on those expeditions was Poland. ``I loved it when I was there, so I can't wait to go back,'' Pravettone said.

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PHOTO (Color) Leslie Pravettone holds a mask from Bali and a boomerang from Australia. The seasoned traveler will spend two years teaching English in Poland for the Peace Corps.

Terri Thuente/Daily News