December 31, 2020 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Alana DeJoseph (Mali) wins Best Director Award at Mumbai Film Festival

Dec 31 2020

From 1992 to 1994 Peace Corps Volunteer Alana DeJoseph was an enterprise development advisor in a small town in Mali, West Africa, consistently one of the 10 poorest nations in the world. Being a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer she understood that as walls are being built and nations are turning inward, a comprehensive documentary of this globally engaged American agency was urgently needed. Alana says: “In a time when the American public either has a very antiquated notion of the Peace Corps, informed by an almost mythological awe of the 60s, or is not even aware that the agency still exists, it is high time to bring this unique organization back into the public discourse, to raise the level of the discussion from quaint to crucial.” Alana has worked in video and film production for nearly 40 years. She began her career as a 10-year-old actress. Since then, she . . .

Another Peace Corps Rhodes Scholar — Jackson Willis (Guinea)

Dec 31 2020

Yale Undergrad Drops Out of School For Peace Corps Response Assignment By Divya Kumar Tampa Bay Times When Jackson Willis was a junior at Yale University, he regularly scouted postings for Peace Corps positions. Many required a college degree and professional experience. One night, on a whim, he applied for an opening that excited him — to work on youth unemployment in Guinea. He didn’t expect to hear back, but the Peace Corps called to say a position had opened. Yale granted Jackson a one-year leave between his junior and senior year to serve with the Peace Corps Response working in the politically destabilizing youth unemployment crisis in Guinea, West Africa. There, his team operated the country’s leading employment incubator and small business accelerator, testing the limits of social franchising for both emergency and long-term employment gain. Willis, 24, had already signed up for his senior year classes and moved into . . .

Archive - December 31, 2020