Archive - May 2018

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RPCVs of Gulf Coast of Florida hosted World Heritage Festival
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Jody Olsen to speak at U of Md/Baltimore commencement — May 18
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From Tunisia to Baltimore to Washington, new Peace Corps Director at home in the world
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RPCV National Teacher Award winner sticks it to Trump
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RPCV Teacher of the Year shares speech she says Trump wouldn’t let her read during award ceremony
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PC Director Olsen to represent US at Sierra Leone inauguration on May 12 in Freetown
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RPCV Mandy Manning National Teacher of the Year (Armenia)
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Gathering in celebration of the life of Nancy Graham
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Peter Hessler (China) writes on the Egyptian revolution and raising twins on the Nile

RPCVs of Gulf Coast of Florida hosted World Heritage Festival

  Thanks to the ‘heads up’ from Leita Kaldi (Senegal 1993-96) •    A note from Leita — The Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of the Gulf Coast of Florida hosted World Heritage Festival Saturday, April 28, 2018, at Bayfront Park from 11 am to 3 pm, in partnership with “Embracing Our Differences.” RPCVs showed displays representing the seven regions Peace Corps Volunteers serve in and shared their stories. We had artifacts, sights and music from all over the world. Hundreds of people attended and  what a wonderful surprise when students from Manatee School of the Performing Arts and Sarasota School for the Arts and Sciences did cultural dances for us! That spontaneity was so uplifting! All the students that were there contributed so much and worked steadfastly to make sure our event was a success!

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Jody Olsen to speak at U of Md/Baltimore commencement — May 18

  Peace Corps Director to speak at University of Maryland, Baltimore commencement   The director of the Peace Corps will deliver the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s spring commencement address, university officials said. Jody Olsen will speak to graduates during the May 18 graduation ceremony in Baltimore’s Royal Farms Arena. She “is a tireless champion for developing the campus infrastructure and faculty and student competencies to ensure that we can effectively and safely deliver great global education,” said Richard P. Barth, dean of the university’s school of social work. “She is a terrific communicator, relentlessly optimistic and affirming, and exceptionally knowledgeable about all things international.” Olsen began her work in the Peace Corps as a Volunteer in Tunisia in 1966. She gradually moved up through the ranks, before being confirmed as the Peace Corps’ director in March, having made the Peace Corps her career. She has also been a visiting professor in . . .

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From Tunisia to Baltimore to Washington, new Peace Corps Director at home in the world

  From Tunisia to Baltimore to Washington, new Peace Corps director at home in the world Baltimore Sun Sunday, May 6, 2018 Jody Olsen, director of the Peace Corps, talks about her introduction to the Peace Corps as well as the the continued excitement of people to volunteer for the mission. by Jean Marbella, Reporter • Half a century ago, after completing two years as a Peace Corp volunteer in Tunisia, where she taught English, learned how to make couscous and drank tea with merchants, Jody Olsen moved to another new place quite foreign to her. But she soon got to know her neighbors, who shared dinners, the names of house painters and day care arrangements, and quickly felt at home in the village. Charles Village. “Villages are villages,” Olsen said with a laugh. Olsen considers those 10 years in Baltimore an important part of a journey that took her . . .

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RPCV National Teacher Award winner sticks it to Trump

  Manning wore six badges on her black dress. According to a pooled report, they included one with a poster for the Women’s March that followed Trump’s inauguration, one that said “Trans Equality Now” and one in the shape of an apple with a rainbow. The badges also represented the teacher of the year programme, National Education Association and Peace Corps, where she began her teaching career.

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RPCV Teacher of the Year shares speech she says Trump wouldn’t let her read during award ceremony

  Thanks to the ‘heads up’ from Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65) • Teacher of the Year shares speech she says Trump wouldn’t let her read during award ceremony  BY JOHN BOWDEN The Hill 5/5/2018   Teacher of the Year shares speech she says Trump wouldn’t let her read during award ceremony Mandy Manning (Armenia 1999-2000), this year’s National Teacher of the Year, read a speech on CNN Saturday that she said President Trump wouldn’t let her give during her award ceremony at the White House. In an interview with CNN’s Van Jones, Manning read from her speech, which referenced the immigrant and refugee students she teaches, as well as her support for LGBT and other marginalized students. Manning said her purpose is to tell her students “that they are wanted, they are enough, and they matter.” In her appearance on CNN, she listed the names of her students who she says rely on America’s “policy of welcoming immigrants . . .

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PC Director Olsen to represent US at Sierra Leone inauguration on May 12 in Freetown

  Thanks to the ‘heads up’ from Dale Gilles (Liberia 1964-66 & PC/W 1968-73 & 1990-93) • President Trump Announces Presidential Delegation to the Republic of Sierra Leone to Attend the Inauguration of His Excellency Julius Maada Bio Peace Corps Director Jody Olsen, a life long Republican and one of President Trump’s greatest supporters has been selected by the President to lead the U.S. delegation to Sierra Leone. President Donald J. Trump announced on May 3 the designation of a Presidential Delegation to the Republic of Sierra Leone to attend the Inauguration of His Excellency Julius Maada Bio on May 12, 2018, in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Jody will lead the delegation.  Members of the Presidential Delegation: Maria E. Brewer, United States Ambassador to the Republic of Sierra Leone Cyril E. Sartor, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs, National Security Council Stephanie S. Sullivan, Senior Deputy Assistant Secretary, . . .

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RPCV Mandy Manning National Teacher of the Year (Armenia)

  Thanks to a ‘heads up’ from Dan Campbell (El Salvador 1974-77)  •   • The winner of the National Teacher of the Year award handed President Donald Trump a stack of letters from refugee and children in her classroom during a ceremony in the White House. Mandy Manning (Armenia 1999-2000), who teaches English to newly arrived immigrants and refugees at Joel E. Ferris High School in Spokane, Washington, was announced as the winner of the annual award after the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) praised her methods for helping children to “overcome their fears and seek out new experiences.” While accepting the award, Manning staged a silent protest against the president by wearing a number of political badges. The badges included one reading “Trans Equality Now,” one promoting the Women’s March which took place following Trump’s inauguration and a rainbow-colored apple. After the ceremony, Manning told the Associated Press that she used a private . . .

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Gathering in celebration of the life of Nancy Graham

  Gathering in Celebration of the Life of Nancy Graham May 10, 1926 ~ January 12, 2018 We hope you will join the Graham family and friends for a gathering in memory of Nancy Graham. Saturday, May 12, 2018 10:30am Temple B’nai Israel (new site) 7199 Tristan Drive Easton, MD 21601 A reception with light refreshments will follow. We look forward to seeing you. John and Dawn, Nan and Mark, Dick and Audrey, Hoey and Ronnie, Busy and Stew Feel free to send a card, a story, a poem, or a photo for the memory book to: busygraham@gmail.com or to P.O. Box 87, Royal Oak, MD 21662. • Here is what appeared in the Washington Post: Nancy Graham, Peace Corps official Nancy Graham, 91, who served as a special assistant to four Peace Corps directors from 1976 to 1982 and also served on many nonprofit boards, died Jan. 12 at her home in Royal Oak, Md. The . . .

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Peter Hessler (China) writes on the Egyptian revolution and raising twins on the Nile

  Peter Hessler’s essay “Morsi the Cat” appears in the May 7, 2018 issue of The New Yorker. The subtitle of the essay is “Making a home in Cario during a revolution.” Peter and his wife Leslie and their newly born twin daughters, Natasha and Ariel, spent five years living in Cairo. As new parents, daily they had to deal with and worry about raising their twins while living through a revolution. They were also confronted (as all cat owners are) with the daily antics of their household pet, Morsi, named after Mohamed Morsi, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and president of Egypt.  The Hesslers had adopted the cat to rid their Cariro apartment of invading mice, living as they were in a first floor apartment in Zamalek, a neighborhood on a long, thin island in the middle of the Nile. While in Egypt, Peter wrote pieces for The . . .

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