Take a Service Sabbatical

Susan Sumner and Paul Reinhart are seriously downsizing their lives -- donating many of their belongings to charity, locking up their Mountain View, Cal., home and putting their finances on autopilot. The husband-and-wife duo will leave in August for a 27-month stay in Kazakhstan, just south of the Russian border, as Peace Corps volunteers.

Public-service programs such as the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps have seen a huge increase in applicants -- perhaps because the recession has stirred a shift in priorities and inspired a little soul-searching. President Obama's call to service may also be a factor. Around the time of his inauguration, online applications for the Peace Corps surged 175%.

Sumner, 48, and Reinhart, 49, were fortunate to have the means to retire from their Silicon Valley careers at a relatively early age, leaving 60-hour workweeks behind. As frequent travelers who are interested in other cultures, they crave cultural immersion and an opportunity to give back. Sumner will serve as a business-development volunteer and Reinhart as an NGO (nongovernmental organization) development volunteer.

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The Peace Corps will pay them just enough for food and lodging at the local standard of living. "We have a skewed view of the world," Reinhart says. "We can get by with a lot less."

To prepare for their sabbatical, they've frozen their credit lines, asked family members to care for their home and pets, and set up automatic bill-payment accounts.

Sumner and Reinhart are 20 years older than the typical Peace Corps volunteer. That's another trend -- over the past year, the organization has seen a 40% rise in applications from Americans age 50 and older.

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