Archive - 2016

  NPR’s Michel Martin interviewed Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet and Dr. Vanessa Kerry, Executive Director of Global Health Services Corps, January 14, 2013.  Read the transcript of the interview “New Ground for Peace Corps.” In the interview, Director Hessler-Radelet explains that Peace Corps doctors and nurses have served in the Peace Corps since its very beginning. The majority of these serving medical professionals were in community health programs. The partnership with Global Health Services Corps will emphasize  building health system strengthening  and will begin with medical education. This new partnership with Global Health Services was discussed on Peace Corps World Wide when it began. Here are links to other sources that provide additional information about the partnership. This is the link to a pdf of the original Peace Corps contract with Global Health Services. The following interview, “A Peace Corps For Doctors, Built By A Senator’s Daughter,” is the first one on . . .

Concept Paper for the Peace Corps Global Health Service Partnership  “How many of you who are going to be doctors, are willing to spend your days in Ghana? . . . On your willingness to do that not merely to serve one year or two years . . . . but on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country, I think will depend the answer whether a free society can compete. I think it can! And I think Americans are willing to contribute. But the effort must be far greater than we have ever made in the past.” Senator John F. Kennedy during the 1960 Presidential Campaign on the first mention of what became the Peace Corps Speaking before 5,000 students at The University of Michigan, 2 a.m., October 14, 1960  “As we transition from an emergency response to a more sustainable approach, we are supporting partner . . .

State Department-funded nonprofit that John Kerry had ‘No Role’ in, was rounded in his home  U.S. Senator John Kerry waves as he escorts his daughter Vanessa. (Reuters/John Schults) A nonprofit created in Secretary of State John Kerry’s upscale Boston home and managed by his daughter Vanessa Kerry has received more than $9 million from the Department of State, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation has found. Seed Global Health was founded at 19 Louisburg Sq in Boston’s Beacon Hill, tax forms indicate.News reports show that’s Kerry’s home address, which Zillow estimates is worth nearly $18 million. Kerry’s wife, Teresa, is an heir to the Heinz family fortune. Beacon Hill is the most expensive block in Boston, with median home values estimated at $6.7 million in 2015, a Boston Globe affiliate reported. The Boston Business Journal ranked Kerry’s house the third most valuable home in the city in 2013. The Department of . . .

LEADERSHIP & GOVERNANCE: VIDEO: AT MARLBORO COLLEGE, EVERYBODY GETS A VOTE Kevin F.F. Quigley, president, Marlboro College By Jack Stripling September 29, 2016 Thanks to a “heads up” from Bill Preston (Thailand 1977-80) Situated in the foothills of the Green Mountains of southern Vermont, Marlboro College is a small liberal-arts institution of only about 200 undergraduates. One of the college’s most distinctive features is the Town Meeting, a New England–style governance structure that gives everyone, from students to professors to custodial staff, a vote on decisions that range from changes in policy to landscaping. Kevin F.F. Quigley,(Thailand 1976-79) president of Marlboro, recently spoke with The Chronicle about the college’s anomalous approach to decision making. He also discussed Marlboro’s efforts to increase enrollment through full-tuition scholarships granted to one student from every state in the nation. Video Link: http://www.chronicle.com/article/Video-At-Marlboro-College/237894/ TRANSCRIPT : JACK STRIPLING: Hi. I am here with Kevin Quigley, who’s president . . .

  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 . . .

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 . . .