Author - John Coyne

    BRATTLEBORO — For more than 90 years, people from all over the world have come to Southern Vermont to live and learn, starting with the Experiment for International Living in 1932 and later known as the School for International Training. In the early 1960s, alumnus Sargent Shriver asked the Experiment, then located on Black Mountain in Brattleboro, to train the first wave of volunteers for the nascent Peace Corps, a training program that evolved into the School for International Training and the SIT Study Abroad program, which enrolled at its height more than 2,000 people every year. In 2008, World Learning, SIT’s parent organization, renamed the program in Brattleboro the SIT Graduate Institute, offering master’s degrees in eight areas of study, as well as certificate and professional development programs. In 2018, World Learning announced it was scaling back its programs in Brattleboro, while offering the same courses at locations around the . . .

Countryside: Kitchen Medicine: Herbalist Chooses the Plants at Our Doorstep By Theresa Curry November 3, 2023 Kat Maier (Chile 1978-79) loves the types described in Ayurvedic medicine and has studied plant traditions in Chile as a Peace Corps volunteer, went to an internationally known herb school in England, spent time in the lush hedgerows of Ireland and learned from herbalists all over the world. But, “Don’t go online and order exotic powders and tinctures from afar,” she said. “Let’s start with the local plants that are appropriate for us.” Maier, owner of Sacred Plant Traditions in Charlottesville, and the author of the best-selling book Energetic Herbalism, spoke to an enthusiastic crowd at the Rockfish Valley Community Center late last month as part of  public radio WMRA’s Books and Brews series. She said our fertile mountains are known for high-quality, potent plants that grow wild and thrive. “People all over the world . . .

Small Minnesota city establishing first-of-its-kind park By Tim Blotz Published November 2, 2023  Minnesota PLAINVIEW, Minn.  – Leaders from America’s top government service organizations are coming to a small, rural Minnesota town on Saturday to promote an idea as old as the country itself.  The idea is service to the nation. Retired Army four-star general Joseph Votel along with Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn, AmeriCorps Director Ken Goodson, and Colonel Eduardo Suarez from the Minnesota National Guard are appearing and speaking at Plainview High School to promote the establishment of a National Service Park on the south side of the southeast Minnesota town. “There’s nothing quite like that, that we know of in the country,” said Ken Flies, president of the Peace Corps Legacy Association. The Volunteers Flies represent a unique contribution to the legacy of service to the country.  When President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps in 1961, an idea first proposed by . . .

THE DEATH OF JFK–NOVEMBER 22, 1963 Shortly after noon on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. RPCVs—Tell us your story of being in the Peace Corps on November, 22, 1963. Where were you a Volunteer? What was the reactions from neighbors, friends, students? What did your HCN friends say to you about JFK’s death? How did the “American in-country community” react? How did you hear the news from Dallas? These are just a few questions you might answer. Tell us your story of that time in fewer than a 1000 words. I’ll post it on our site during the week of November 22nd. Send it to me: jcoyneone@gmail.com

The Infamous Peace Corps Postcard I recently received a few emails asking what JFK’s remark about writing to him meant to PCVs. Here’s a quick summary of the ‘famous’ post card incident that I posted on our site a few years ago.   Marjorie Michelmore (Nigeria 1961) was a twenty-three-year-old magna cum laude graduate of Smith College when she became one of the first people to apply to the new Peace Corps. She was an attractive, funny, and smart woman who was selected to go to Nigeria. After seven weeks of training at Harvard, her group flew to Nigeria. There she was to complete the second phase of teacher training at University College at Ibadan, fifty miles north of the capital of Lagos. By all accounts, she was an outstanding Trainee. Then on the evening of October 13, 1961, she wrote a postcard to a boyfriend in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Here is . . .

CSU Photographer On Sunday, Oct. 15, the Colorado State University campus played host to an extraordinary gathering of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs), alumni, faculty and community members to mark the grand opening of the Peace Corps Tribute Garden. The event, organized by CSU’s Office of International Programs, was a celebration of the visionary stalwart Rams who in 1961 conducted a robust feasibility study which would lay the foundation for what we now know as the Peace Corps. The Tribute Garden, a serene and contemplative space nestled within the heart of campus, is a poignant reminder of this rich history. It is also a standing testament to the university’s ongoing dedication to promoting international cooperation and understanding. RPCVs from across the country gathered at CSU to commemorate the occasion. The event included a lineup of distinguished speakers who shared their experiences and insights into the profound impact of the Peace . . .

Growing Together: Stories from the Peace Corps Calling all RPCVs! Join us as we celebrate Peace Corps Week 2024 with a memorable storytelling contest that will illuminate the amazing work and spirit of RPCVs and the entire Peace Corps network. On March 1st, 2024, contest winners will have their stories performed by local students on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage in Washington D.C. Winners will receive public recognition from the Peace Corps and be invited to attend the in-person storytelling event. For those who are unable to make the trip, the event will be livestreamed. The theme of the Storytelling Contest is Growing Together: Stories from the Peace Corps and we hope to capture stories about the shared progress, relationship building, and intercultural exchange that happens between all members of the Peace Corps community. Eligibility:   Individuals from across the Peace Corps network are eligible to submit a story, including: Counterparts Current Peace Corps or . . .

      A police escort with sirens blaring led our dozen Peace Corps buses in one long continuous caravan through every downtown light in Washington, D.C. It was high noon in the District the summer of 1962, less than a year after the famous postcard dropped by a PCV had been found on the Ibadan campus that almost doomed the Peace Corps and we–the 300 Ethiopia-bound Peace Corps Trainees at Georgetown University–were on our way to meet John F. Kennedy at the White House There were other Peace Corps Trainees as well meeting the President that afternoon. Peace Corps Trainees at Howard, American, Catholic, George Washington universities, and the University of Maryland, over 600 in all, gathered in the August heat and humidity on the great lawn below the Truman Balcony. Arriving at the White House, I walked with the others up the slope with the Washington Monument behind me . . .

OCTOBER 26, 2023 HANOI, October 24, 2023 – The second cohort of U.S. Peace Corps volunteers have arrived in Hanoi to further support the Ministry of Education and Training’s (MOET) national priorities for English Language Education and demonstrate our bilateral commitment to education and training cooperation under the U.S. – Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The U.S. Peace Corps volunteers will be the first group to serve at high schools throughout Ho Chi Minh City starting in January 2024. Volunteers will work alongside local teacher to co-teach English classes to help Vietnamese students develop their English skills to access studying and employment opportunities. Peace Corps Vietnam fully aligns with MOET’s objectives and is enabled by the Implementing Agreement signed in 2020 between the U.S. and Vietnamese governments with Peace Corps and the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) as Implementing Entities. “The geographic expansion of the program to Ho Chi Minh City . . .