Archive - August 30, 2018

Photo credit to Cecil Stoughton, White House After their Peace Corps service, many volunteers go on to international careers. Although State does not track former PCVs in the department, an average of 5% of new Foreign Service Officers in the last four entering classes reported Peace Corps experience and more than 60 former volunteers have served as U.S. ambassadors. For USAID, a 2015 report to Congress pegs the percentage of former volunteers or staff in the agency at 28%. Focus on Peace Corps and Diplomatic Careers How the Peace Corps Transformed the Foreign Service by John Coyne Joining the Foreign Service: the Experiences of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers by John Coyne First Ambassador with Peace Corps Experience: Parker Borg by John Coyne Responding to the Call for Volunteers “From Every Race and Walk of Life” by John Coyne Go to: www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/      

Summertime Quiz                    Country                              Author The Measure of a Dream                                           Tunisia                         Lora Begin  (1989-91) Published by Peace Corps Writers, 2012 How to Cook a Crocodile                                            Gabon                        Bonnie Black  (1996-98) Published by Peace Corps Writers, 2010 Dusty Land: Stories of Two Teachers                     Botswana                   John Ashford  (1990-93) Published by Peace Corps Writers, . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Mary-Ann Tirone Smith (Cameroon 1965-67) In South Florida, Donna Shalala (Iran 1962-64), the 77-year-old former federal health and human services secretary, won a close primary for an open House seat against a younger male state legislator who criticized her from the left.