Peace Corps Worldwide

  Here’s what Clinton proposes to build what she calls a “culture of service” Grow AmeriCorps: Draw on new AmeriCorps members to recruit, train, and lead the Reserve. AmeriCorps members serve for a year, receiving a modest living allowance and college scholarship funds. Clinton has pledged to expand AmeriCorps from 75,000 to 250,000 members annually and double the college scholarship each member receives for their service. Some of these additional AmeriCorps members will help organize the Reserve. Increase Full Time Service: Dramatically expand year-long service positions, with the vision that every person who wants to serve full-time can do so. She has pledged to create 250,000 annual slots in AmeriCorps and will work with private and nonprofit leaders to even further grow the program to increase the number of citizens engaged in national service. Create a Culture of Service: Engage returning veterans as well as Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and other . . .

Hillary Clinton Campaign Rally in Fort Pierce, Florida Hillary Clinton announced her plan to create a National Service Reserve during a campaign rally in Fort Pierce, Florida. Mrs. Clinton also outlined plans to increase participation in AmeriCorps and Peace Corps. https://www.c-span.org/video/?416151-1/hillary-clinton-campaigns-fort-pierce-florida Peace Corps! @HIllaryClinton speaks to the value of Peace Corps! https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4622887/peace-corps

Clinton to offer national service initiative during Florida swing By John Wagner September 30 at 5:00 AM FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Hillary Clinton will announce plans Friday for a new program geared toward helping people under age 30 participate in national service, according to an aide. The Democratic presidential nominee is scheduled to detail her initiative during a speech here in this presidential battleground state. It comes during a stretch when Clinton has stepped up efforts to appeal to millennials, a demographic that she lost heavily to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the Democratic primaries. Though Clinton is performing better than Republican nominee Donald Trump among young voters, polls have showed an unusually large number considering casting a ballot for a third-party candidate this year. The Clinton aide provided few details about what she will propose during her speech but said the initiative will reflect Clinton’s belief that “people . . .

Peace Corps volunteers flee ‘ISIS’ vagrant By Vanessa Braithwaite,  Guyana Chronicle September 26, 2016 Thanks for the “heads up” from Alana DeJoseph (Mali 1992–94)       THE mining town of Linden is now short of four US Peace Corps volunteers in the health and education sectors after they received death threats from a vagrant known as “Killer”. According to reports, the man is known in the community as being mentally unstable. He would oftentimes make public threats, claiming to be a member of the terrorist organization Islamic State and would kill any American national if given the chance.      The man would normally stand at the corner of Republic Avenue and Green Heart Street Mackenzie and verbally abuse passersby, using expletives and other threatening language.      At one time he used to physically assault persons who on many occasion had to be defended by others nearby. While the Linden . . .

Global Geopolitical Power and African Political and Economic Institutions by John James Quinn (Zaire PCV/ Staff 1983-86) Lexington Books December 2015 394 pages Hardback $100.00; eBook $109.00 John James Quinn published late in 2015 Global Geopolitical Power and African Political and Economic Institutions an academic book on sub-Saharan Africa political and economic institutions from an international relations perspective. Quinn teaches political science at Truman State University (that’s in Missouri) and is editor of the McNair Scholarly Review. What is most impressive about the book is the price: Hardback $100.00; eBook $109.00 Here’s the blurb on Amazon about the book. Global Geopolitical Power and African Political and Economic Institutions: When Elephants Fight describes the emergence and nature of the prevailing African political and economic institutions in two periods. In the first, most countries adopted political and economic institutions that funneled significant levels of political and economic power to the political elites, . . .

On Wednesday, September 21, 2016, Marian Haley Beil and I spoke to RPCVs attending the opening Workshops of the National Peace Corps Association Conference in Washington, D.C. Publisher Marian Beil’s Workshop was on the mechanics of self-publishing a book and I spoke about writing a Peace Corps memoir, novel, or collection of stories. Here are my comments to approximately 100 RPCVs who attend our sessions. I focused first on the history of Peace Corps books and their importance to American literature and then I had suggestions on how one might write their book. John Coyne, Editor Writers From The Peace Corps  One of the most important books of the late 1950 was The Ugly American by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick. The book’s hero was a skilled technician committed to helping in developing countries at a grassroots level by building water pumps, digging roads, building bridges. He was called the . . .

Maria Thomas Fiction Award This Award is named after the novelist Maria Thomas [Roberta Worrick (Ethiopia 1971–73)] who was the author of a well-reviewed novel and two collections of short stories all set in Africa. She lost her life in August, 1989, while working in Ethiopia for a relief agency. She went down in the plane crash that killed Congressman Mickey Leland of Texas. Winner for 2016 for the novel Landfall  is Ellen Urbani (Guatemala 1991-92) Also this: Notes from The Oregonian/OregonLive’s books desk. “Landfall” wins prize: West Linn author Ellen Urbani’s 2015 novel “Landfall,” about the intertwined stories of two teenage girls in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, has won the Peace Corps’ 2016 Maria Thomas Fiction Award, given to Peace Corps alumni  (Urbani served with the Peace Corps in Guatemala from 1991 to 1992). “Landfall,” which The Oregonian/OregonLive’s reviewer called “a book to be savored,” was published by . . .

By U.S. News Staff Sept. 23, 2016, at 5:13 p.m. Rep. Joe Kennedy, D-Mass (Dominican Republic 2004-06), is among the most well-known Peace Corps volunteers. He served in the Dominican Republic from 2004-2006, and is an outspoken proponent of the organization founded in 1961 by his great-uncle, John F. Kennedy, and first led by another great-uncle, Sargent Shriver. Along with other current and returned Peace Corps volunteers, he told U.S. News via email about his Peace Corps experiences. What’s your best memory of serving in the Peace Corps? Would you encourage others to do it now? During my service in the DR, I was riding a bus on my own one day when an older gentleman tapped me on the shoulder. “Corpo de Paz?” he asked. I nodded. Then he leaned forward and thanked me. “For what?” I asked. He explained that years ago, a young man came to his town as a Peace Corps volunteer and helped . . .