John Coyne – Page 11 – Peace Corps Worldwide

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 . . .

STICKY RICE MAGAZINE (Thailand)

Jun 10 2024

A podcast — Chaa Thai is a podcast spilling the tea on Peace Corps volunteer life in Thailand! Each episode, hosts Dano Nissen and Morgan Shupsky interview a current Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand and do a deep dive on their experience at their host site. The tea is that there are as many examples of what service is like for a volunteer in Thailand as there are volunteers — join us as we get a taste! Coming off our long and lazy summer break we’ve got a chaotic episode with a chaotic volunteer – Kaleb! When he’s not in Bangkok, Kaleb is teaching English in Nakhon Si Thammarat and this is actually his second go around in Thailand, as he was also a victim of group 132’s COVID evacuation. We cover how volunteers spend all the free time and days off we have, Thai standardized testing, managing a . . .

CorpsAfrica Expands to South Africa

Jun 08 2024

RPCVs in the news — WASHINGTON, DC, USA, June 5, 2024 CorpsAfrica is expanding its global presence by launching volunteer programs in South Africa, the organization announced this week. Founded in 2011 by former Peace Corps Volunteer Liz Fanning (Morocco 1993-95) CorpsAfrica recruits and trains educated African youth as volunteers to live and work in rural, under-resourced communities in their own countries. Operating on the core belief that African youth are the Continent’s greatest resource, the organization places volunteers in remote communities for up to one year, to facilitate small-scale, high-impact projects that are identified by the local community, many of which are related to health, economic empowerment, and climate change. Currently, CorpsAfrica has over 900 volunteers in ten African countries, with plans to eventually expand to all 54 African nations. Kelo Kubu, curator of TEDx Johannesburg, has been appointed as CorpsAfrica’s Country Director in South Africa. Kubu served as . . .

BACKYARD RACE HORSE by Janet Del Castillo (Colombia)

Jun 06 2024

Backyard Race Horse by Janet Del Castillo (Colombia 1964-66) Prediction Publication 520 pages April 2013 $40.00 (Paperback) From training horses at the farm to hauling livestock and equipment to the race track, this hands-on manual covers everything a competent horse owner needs to know to get involved in horse racing. Extensive discussions examine how to exercise horses, keep a horse sound, and prepare for the race. Specifics on monitoring horses’ legs, dispensing medication, and track personnel round out this in-depth manual. Included is a directory of thoroughbred racetracks and organizations. • • • Still practicing the Peace Corps Interviewed by Thomas R. Oldt Amidst our dreadful political morass, when we can’t even seem to agree on what it means to be an American, the whole notion of idealism is seen by many as naïve if not downright suspect. That is one of the many . . .

New Peace Corps Team Lands in Moldova

Jun 05 2024

New Peace Corps Team Lands in Moldova to Boost English Education The 36th group of Peace Corps volunteers from the United States has arrived in Moldova. Twenty-three volunteers landed today at Chișinău International Airport. Prior to commencing their service, the volunteers will undergo a ten-week training program. This program will focus on Romanian language acquisition, Moldovan culture immersion, and technical skill development. Following the training, the volunteers will be deployed to schools, town halls, and community centres throughout Moldova. The Peace Corps program was first established in Moldova by the Chișinău government in 1993. The program’s primary objective is to enhance the English language teaching capabilities of Moldovan educators within the existing educational framework.

Peace Corps Volunteers donate Korean art collection worth $250,000

Jun 04 2024

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Karl Drobnic (Ethiopia, 1966-68) An American couple who came to Korea in 1969 to work as Peace Corps volunteers have donated the art they collected during their six years here. The 140 items donated last year were valued at a quarter of a million dollars, they said. At first, their family tried to talk the lively 70-somethings out of giving away such a large amount of their money. “But it’s money we never really had,” Gary Mintier remarked when sharing their story. Gary and his wife Mary Ann had done most of their art shopping in what they referred to as “Mary’s Alley,” an old term for central Seoul’s Insa-dong, which has been known for housing a market selling art and antiques. Most of the art they purchased was priced very cheaply, as Korea was a poor country in those days, and centuries-old . . .

Peace Corps names UW-Madison its No. 1 volunteer-producing university for 2023

Jun 03 2024

Community health and teaching by the ocean UW-Madison graduates thrive in Peace Corps BY BEATRICE LAWRENCE JUNE 3, 2024 One recent University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate is in Kenya learning about community-based health care to help pregnant people and young children. Another is in a small Costa Rican mountain community helping students in what she described as, “The hardest job you’ll ever love.” A third is teaching sixth graders in South America near the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. All of these recent graduates joined the Peace Corps, which can be a pretty common path for students leaving UW-Madison. In April, the Peace Corps announced that UW-Madison was its No. 1 volunteer-producing university for 2023. Since President John F. Kennedy created the Peace Corps in 1961, more than 2,700 volunteers have come from UW-Madison. Three of those volunteers joined WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” from across the world to . . .

Author - John Coyne