2024 – Page 14 – Peace Corps Worldwide

2024 Peace Corps Writers Best Peace Corps Memoir Award Winner!

Jun 21 2024

Taking the Plunge Into Ethiopia: Tales of a Peace Corps Volunteer by William L. Hershey (Ethiopia 1968-70) William Hershey served as the only Peace Corps Volunteer in the small Ethiopian town of Dabat. He taught seventh and eighth grade students the English that they would need to continue their educations and brighten their futures. He became part of the community, eating the local food and doing his best to communicate in Amharic. He also navigated cultural gaffes — having his house stoned by disgruntled students angered at being assigned to clean the outhouses; and nearly sparking international trouble by clashing with a player from a rival school during a heated basketball game. Decades later as a journalist, he used his once-in-a-lifetime Peace Corps experience to reflect on immigration, global goodwill and the hope the United States should share with the rest of the world. • • • William Hershey spent . . .

LOST HOLLOW by Donna S. Frelick (Gambia)

Jun 20 2024

Lost Hollow by Donna S. Frelick (Gambia 1976-78) 335 pages July 2024 $2.99 (Kindle 2298 KB) Book 1 of 1 Alienville Series • • • Dr. Moira McCann worries when her mercurial twin Claire fails to show up for a rare sisterly visit. Claire’s last text was from a small town in the North Carolina mountains—Allenville. And now Claire won’t respond to any texts or calls; her phone is dead. Which means Moira—the responsible sister—has to go looking for her. Allenville Police Chief Seth Call juggles the usual town disputes and the everyday trouble outsiders get into in his remote county. But early summer brings a special kind of chaos: it’s mating season in these mountains for a certain vicious species, and anyone is prey if they wander too far off the known paths. When Moira seeks his help finding her sister, Seth can’t hint at any of the real dangers she . . .

2024 Peace Corps Writers Best Travel Writing Award Winner!

Jun 20 2024

The One-Way Ticket Plan: Find and Fund Your Purpose While Traveling the World by Alexa West (Bulgaria) In 2011, Alexa West sat on her bedroom floor, packed her life into a backpack, and got on a one-way flight with just $200 in her pocket. She turned that $200 into over ten years of full-time travel. She went from budget backpacker to solo female travel expert — and she now teaches thousands of women how to travel alone and make money from anywhere. The One-Way Ticket Plan reveals her decade’s worth of lessons, regrets, embarrassments, love stories, shortcuts, and problem-solving strategies — all packed into a hilarious page-turner and actionable plan for a total life makeover. From real-world advice on how travel can lower your cost of living to guidance on traveling safely, using strange toilets, avoiding tourist traps, dealing with unfamiliar foods, and coping with friendships, romance, and loneliness, . . .

Wayne J. Arendt (Dominican Republic) honored for his dedication to Ornithology

Jun 19 2024

In the news – PressRelease — Wayne J. Arendt, PhD, has been selected for inclusion in Marquis Who’s Who. As in all Marquis Who’s Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process. For nearly half a century, Dr. Arendt has been a prominent figure in ornithology. His field research commenced in California, following a three-year tenure in the US Army (1966-1969), which included two years in Alaska as a 4.2 mortarman and Battalion mail clerk, and one year as a military policeman at Ft. Carson’s maximum-security stockade. In 1975, he investigated the life-history of the California Thrasher and its adaption to mesquite cover in the Anza Borrego Desert. Subsequently, he joined the Peace Corps (1976-78) serving in the Dominican Republic under the . . .

2024 Peace Corps Writers’ Moritz Thomsen Experience Award Winner!

Jun 19 2024

Immense Missed Opportunities – IMO by Helene Ballman Dudley (Colombia 1968-70; Slovakia 1997-99) Immense Missed Opportunities – IMO draws on the author’s 23 years of experience building sustainable micro-loan programs in marginalized communities around the world. Based on her experience, and backed by research and recommendations from renowned experts, IMO identifies the vast and largely untapped potential for high-impact, low-cost interventions to reduce poverty, food insecurity, economic migration and gender-based violence. Extreme poverty has marginalized people who are living on the front lines of those problems and who have, perhaps the greatest potential to help solve those problems. People living on under $2 per day require all their energy and problem-solving skills to meet the most basic needs for their families. IMO offers examples of what they can accomplish when they are freed from abject poverty. The book closely follows a group of market vendors and subsistence farmers in . . .

2024 Peace Corps Writers Paul Cowan Non-fiction Award Winner!

Jun 18 2024

The Showgirl and the Writer: A Friendship Forged in the Aftermath of the Japanese American Incarceration by Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65) The Showgirl and the Writer, A Friendship Forged in the Aftermath of the Japanese American Incarceration, by Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65), is a hybrid memoir/biography. It encompasses Mueller’s own story, beginning at her birth to Caucasian parents in the Tule Lake Japanese American High-Security Camp in Northern California, and tells the tale of her long friendship with Mary Mon Toy, a Nisei performer who was incarcerated in the Minidoka Japanese American Camp in Idaho during WWII. The two met by chance in 1994. By then, Mueller was a published author, and Mary Mon Toy, by necessity of old age, had retired from an unusually successful career on stage and television, for an Asian American actor of her time. After Ms. Mon Toy’s death, Mueller penned the previously . . .

University Of Michigan’s Africa Oceanography School

Jun 17 2024

In the news — Oceanography School Receives Funding From Schmidt Sciences By Iednewsdesk Jun 14, 2024 A University of Michigan-led summer school for oceanographers in Ghana and Nigeria is part of a project to receive funding from Schmidt Sciences, a philanthropic organization started by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Wendy Schmidt. The Coastal Ocean Environment Summer School In Nigeria and Ghana, or COESSING, was founded by Brian Arbic, a physical oceanographer and U-M professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. The summer school, which is endorsed by the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), is set to receive $125,000 each year from 2025-2028 and split between U-M and the University of Ghana. The school funding is included in a larger project called Ocean Margins Initiative. OMI is one of five projects that are part of the Ocean Biogeochemistry Virtual Institute, an initiative funded by Schmidt Sciences. OBVI has . . .

Harris Wofford Service Award, June 2024

Jun 15 2024

WASHINGTON, DC— AmeriCorps and Peace Corps awarded the first Harris Wofford Joint Service Award to more than 200 individuals in Houston, Texas at the annual Points of Light Conference. Honoring the legacy of the late Senator Harris Wofford, who helped establish both the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps, the award recognizes individuals who have already chosen to serve their country at home and abroad through both programs, as well as the thousands more who make that same commitment in the future. WATCH: Harris Wofford Award Ceremony “As we commemorate the inaugural Harris Wofford Joint Service Awards, I am proud and grateful for the more than 200 changemakers who have served their country at home and abroad through AmeriCorps and Peace Corps” said Michael D. Smith, AmeriCorps CEO. “These awards serve as a call to action in remembrance of Harris Wofford’s remarkable life and legacy, to find ways big and small to give . . .

Leader in Arts and Entertainment: Kevin Giglinto (Romania)

Jun 14 2024

In the news — Kevin Giglinto (Romania 1994-96) joined the Marcus Performing Arts Center in Milwaukee in July 2023 as its new president and chief executive officer, with more than 25 years of experience. Over the past nine months, Giglinto’s initiatives have led to a 32% increase in venue attendance, the launch of a new series, and an investment in tools to broaden MPAC’s digital reach, according to Lori Craig, senior vice president, market leader for PNC Private Bank and chair of the Marcus Center board. “He was instrumental in creating MPAC’s latest performance lineup, the Culture Collective, designed to celebrate and elevate the contributions of artists of color across a spectrum of artistic disciplines. This new series aligns with MPAC’s commitment to racial equity, diversity and inclusion,” Craig said. Giglinto also launched a new internship program at the Marcus Center, providing young people a chance to explore a career . . .

SILENT LIGHT | A novel by Mark Jacobs (Paraguay)

Jun 13 2024

A new book — Silent Light by Mark Jacobs (Paraguay 1978-80) OB Books June 2024 340 pages $18.95 (paperback) • • • At the start of Mark Jacob’s remarkable new novel ― his first book in thirteen years ― thirty-seven-year-old Smith wins a “stash” of diamonds in a poker game. The only catch: he has to find them. A Louisiana native, Smith is currently employed on an oil platform off the west coast of Africa, while the diamonds are somewhere in the immense, war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo. But Smith’s grown tired of the platform and he hates the idea of wasting a full house. One last adventure, he tells himself, and then, diamonds or no diamonds, he’s heading home to Louisiana. In Kinshasa, Smith meets a young woman named Béatrice, who hails from a village on the other side of the country. But this village, she tells Smith, is . . .

Meet RPCV Marco Werman (Togo and Burkina Faso)

Jun 13 2024

June 12, 2024 GBH • • • Marco Werman, co-host of station GBH’s The World, public radio’s longest-running daily global news program, has worked in journalism since he was a 16-year-old copy boy at the News and Observer in Raleigh, N.C. After graduating from Duke University in 1984, he joined the Peace Corps and went to Togo and Burkina Faso. While in Africa, he started freelancing for the BBC World Service, where he produced Network Africa. He has worked all over the world, joining GBH in 1995 to start The World, which is now heard on 377 public radio stations nationwide — a record number for the program. An interview with Marco What are you reading or listening to now? I read a lot of current affairs and global news — daily reporting from multiple sources to long-form magazine articles — so I’ve been lately creating space to read more fiction. That’s recently included American Spy by . . .

“Rethinking Wellbeing for Today and Tomorrow” by Deb Friedman (Guinea)

Jun 12 2024

By Deb Friedman (Guinea 2002-04) 12 June 2024 ••• My client had recently taken the helm of a mid-sized travel business when I started coaching her. She had stepped into the role infused with positive energy, hopefulness, and sharp leadership instincts; she quickly developed an ambitious plan to transform her organization. She had inherited a team suffering from low-morale, high stress, and uneven performance. The goal she set for herself was to build an engaged and high-performing team, achieving sustainable growth and impact within 18 months. My client had already moved her family across the country for the job; now, she quickly found herself waking up early and working late into the evening. Hobbies were set aside and she regularly missed dinner with her husband and kids. Even when she was home with them, she was often lost in her phone – absorbed in emails and texts. When I . . .

Helping people in underserved areas live their healthiest lives

Jun 12 2024

Meet Samuel Edwards June 10, 2024 By Ashley Bell David Geffen School of Medicine Medical student Samuel Edwards remembers little from his early childhood in Accra, Ghana. When he hears the word “home,” he pictures Toledo, Ohio — where his parents eventually settled after moving to the United States. He counts his mother among his strongest motivations for pursuing a medical career. After she became sick in 2017, Samuel developed a more serious interest in learning as much about health and healthcare as possible. He’d thought about going to medical school previously, but her sickness anchored his future plans in a deeper sense of purpose. He began seeing medicine as more than something to study at school. “I realized medicine is what I’m called to do with my life.” After earning both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Medicine, Health, and Society from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, Samuel joined . . .

George Packer (Togo) writes cover story for July/August ATLANTIC

Jun 11 2024

In the news — For its July/August issue, The Atlantic has made climate change its focus, leading with today’s cover story by staff writer George Packer on the rise and possible fall of Phoenix, Arizona. In his cover story, “The Valley”— the second-longest that The Atlantic has published in the past 40 years — Packer provides a sweeping, kaleidoscopic look at the precarious political and physical ecology of Phoenix, demonstrating that the country’s fastest-growing and most dynamic region contains, in microcosm, all of America’s most contentious and dangerous issues: climate change and election denialism, education and immigration, homelessness and zoning, the future of the working class and of a multiethnic democracy. Phoenix’s contradictions are so great — explosive population and economic growth paired with existential political and environmental challenges — they raise questions about the city’s sustainability, and about the sustainability of the American political project. Phoenix, Packer argues, makes . . .

LEAP by Brent Love (Armenia)

Jun 11 2024

A new book — Leap A Memoir by Brent Love (Armenia 2009-11) Manuscripts Press June 2024 452 pages $14.99 (paperback); 14.99 (Kindle); $37.99 (Hardcover) • • • In a small Texas town, Brent comes out to his parents, and on that night his place in the world cracks wide open. Unmoored from his family but unwilling to give up on his dream, Brent enters the Peace Corps with the incredible task of navigating an unfamiliar land, a new language, and a new identity as a gay man in post-Soviet Armenia. As he grapples with a religious past and a queer future, Brent finds himself immersed in a culture he’d never imagined. He moves in with Armenian families, celebrates his first Nor Tari, hunts mushrooms in the mountain mists, and dances in Yerevan at his first gay bar, all while hoping for and trying to find romance, even love. When his Peace . . .

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