John Coyne – Page 42 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Catherine Trevathan (Bulgaria) | New school superintendent

Apr 25 2023

RPCVs in the news Meet Catherine Trevathan, Hillsdale Local’s new well-traveled superintendent By Linda Hall MOHICAN TWP. OHIO − Catherine Trevathan will bring a world of experience to the Hillsdale Local School District when she becomes its new superintendent in August. She has crisscrossed the globe as an educator since graduating from the College of Mount Saint Joseph in Cincinnati, having held positions in Bulgaria, Turkey, the Hopi reservation in Arizona and most recently, the Little Miami Local Schools in Ohio. “I’ve been blessed with a lot of interesting experiences,” Trevathan said. She recalled sitting outside on a starry night with her dad when she was in eighth grade and telling him she wanted to join the Peace Corps. He may have considered it a youthful dream and been a bit surprised following her college graduation when she said to him, “Guess what? The Peace Corps accepted me.” . . .

Review | Finding Kony by Robert E. Gribbin (Kenya)

Apr 24 2023

Finding Kony by Robert E. Gribbin Self Published 248 pages November 2o22 $3.99 (Kindle); $15.99 (Paperback) Reviewed by Alan G. Johnston (Kenya 1968-70) Note: Both Robert Gribbin and Alan Johnston were in the Peace Corps group that arrived in Kenya in October 1968. They both spent many years in Africa. • On March 5, 2012 a U.S.-based NGO, Invisible Children, Inc., released a short documentary film called Kony 2012. The intent of the film, meant for world-wide distribution, was to make the infamous Ugandan warlord, Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), so famous that he couldn’t hide. The goal was to have him arrested and brought to justice by the end of 2012. The film quickly went viral, garnering more than 100 million views and becoming the most “liked” video on YouTube. The film highlights the announcement by Barack Obama in October 2011 that the U.S. . . .

Sally Martinez (Ethiopia) with Mariposa Yosemite Symphony Orchestra

Apr 24 2023

RPCVs in the news After a 40-month COVID hiatus, the Mariposa Yosemite Symphony Orchestra (MYSO) is back in action with concerts on Saturday, April 29th and Sunday, April 30th in Mariposa (CA) and at Tenaya Lodge in Fish Camp, led by its Founding Music Director and Conductor Les Marsden. Meet Sally Martinez (Ethiopia), Oberlin-trained longtime MYSO Concertmaster and Yosemite National Park’s Volunteer Program Manager . Sally Martinez was introduced to the violin at age 3 and began taking lessons in her home state of Massachusetts. She grew up performing with the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras before attending Oberlin College in Ohio. At Oberlin, Sally pursued a degree in Environmental Studies, but continued to participate in music lessons and performances with students and faculty at the Conservatory of Music. In her adult life, she has had the opportunity to perform with many community and professional orchestras, in concert halls across . . .

Peace Corps Country Director Conner (Macedonia) visits ZIP Institute

Apr 21 2023

From Facebook April 13 — We had the pleasure of hosting Ms. Deborah Conner, Country Director of the Peace Corps North Macedonia, at ZIP Institute It was an inspiring and informative meeting where we discussed the impact of the Peace Corps’ volunteer program and our role as a receiver of volunteers. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with the Peace Corps and to have dedicated volunteers contribute to our organization’s mission. Thank you, Deborah, Mirlinda, and the entire Peace Corps team, for your partnership and commitment to making a difference in our community. • Established in 2011, ZIP Institute is an independent, nonpartisan, public policy organization geared towards producing and disseminating high-quality, objective and comprehensive ideas and analyses central to the democratization and EU Integration of Macedonia.

Kimberly Flowers’ (Bulgaria) career in development

Apr 20 2023

RPCVS in the news Kimberly Flowers (Bulgaria 1999-01) is the executive director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, where she advances the institution’s engagement with public policy issues across academic disciplines. Previously, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), she was named the first full-time director for the Global Food Security Program in 2015, and created and directed the Humanitarian Agenda program in 2017. During her time at CSIS, she primarily analyzed the effectiveness of U.S. foreign assistance programs and policies that impact global hunger and malnutrition, and became a frequent speaker, moderator, and author on issues ranging from the global food system to humanitarian aid. Ms. Flowers has published in Forbes; Georgetown University’s Journal of International Affairs; and has been quoted in congressional testimonies, Foreign Policy, and the Washington Post. She led a high-level task force on humanitarian . . .

US Senate News: Peace Corps Reauthorization Act

Apr 20 2023

April 19, 2023 WASHINGTON, D.C. –– U.S. Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) reintroduced the Peace Corps Reauthorization Act, bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the Peace Corps for the first time in over two decades. Passed unanimously out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last year, the bipartisan legislation raises Peace Corps Volunteers’ readjustment allowance, expedites return-to-service opportunities for those impacted by COVID-19 and future comparable emergencies, and increases transparency as it relates to the agency’s Sexual Assault Advisory Council, among other provisions. “Our Peace Corps volunteers represent American values and serve communities throughout the world in exemplary fashion,” said Senator Young. “Reauthorizing the Peace Corps will provide better support for our volunteers as they continue to work in the field.” “The Peace Corps is long-overdue for reforms to improve the safety and security of Peace Corps volunteers in the field. Last year, the committee . . .

Julia King (Malawi) receives award

Apr 20 2023

Gainesville Ohio City Schools names 2023 Philip Wright Award recipient The Times Published: Apr 18, 2023 Julia King (Malawi 1984-87), a special education teacher at Enota Multiple Intelligences Academy, an elementary school in Gainesville, was honored at Monday’s school board meeting with Gainesville City Schools’ 2023 Philip Wright Award. “I am humbled and honored to serve our community of deeply caring families and educators,” said King, a speech-language pathologist. The award is given annually to educators in the Pioneer RESA region, which covers Northeast Georgia. The award is given annually to educators who demonstrate a strong commitment to improving educational outcomes for students with disabilities. It is named after Philip Wright, an educator who created a legacy of service in the area of special education. Every year, each school district selects a recipient, and all of the winners are presented with their awards at a regional event. “I started as . . .

Fr. William Ryan (Togo) back in Togo

Apr 20 2023

Fr. William Ryan served in the Peace Corps in Togo from 1973 to 1975. He was ordained for the Archdiocese of Washington in 1980. After serving for many years in Hispanic ministry, he returned to Togo in 2006 to become the founding pastor of the mission parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Read more at: www.catholicworldreport.com

Courtney Copeland (Ukraine) welcomes Ukraine refugees

Apr 19 2023

Alum of Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey CA sponsoring a Ukrainian Alum’s Humanitarian Parole It wasn’t the email Yaroslav Perepadya had been hoping for. Cortney Copeland MPA/MAIEM ’15 had bad news—the potential American sponsor for him and his teenage son hadn’t checked out. It had been six months since Perepadya MACD ’03 and his son had fled their home in Dnipro, a day after Russia invaded at the border, just 150 miles from their home. They headed first to western Ukraine, then to Ireland, where they’d been hunkering down in a hotel room for months as Perepadya looked for a long-term home in the U.S. Copeland, a board member and volunteer with the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Alliance for Ukraine (RPCV Alliance), apologized for having gotten his hopes up and said they were still looking to see if they could find a match. As she scanned his bio, a detail jumped . . .

Thursday, April 20th, Rocky Mountain PBS will air A Towering Task

Apr 18 2023

On Thursday, April 20th, Rocky Mountain PBS will be airing A Towering Task across the state of Colorado. We are finally getting this Peace Corps story out to a broader television audience. For those of you in the area, tune in at 9pm Mountain Time (11pm Eastern Time). And if you live in Colorado (or want to travel to meet us there!), we are working on hosting a follow-up watch party in a couple of months at the Rocky Mountain PBS studios in Denver. Let us know if you want to be on our official invite list by emailing us at info@peacecorpsdocumentary.com. We hope you can join us in watching the broadcast, at the follow-up gathering, or both! And, of course, we are continuing to work with public television distributors across the country to bring A Towering Task to your local stations. Stay tuned for more information and how you can make sure your station airs the documentary. Director . . .

Ray Nayler RPCV Science Fiction (Turkmenistan)

Apr 18 2023

RAY NAYLER (Turkmenistan 2003-05) was born on June 5, 1976 in Alma, Quebec. When he was three years old, his family moved to California. He attended the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he studied modern literature and developed an interest in semiotics, graduating in 1999. He lived in the Bay Area and Toronto and worked on various odd jobs before joining the Peace Corps and moving to Turkmenistan in 2003. He learned Russian there and later worked in Russia for an international NGO specializing in educational exchange. He lived in Moscow, then Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, from where he joined the US Foreign Service in 2010. He subsequently served in Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, and Kosovo, living abroad for 20 years before returning to the US in 2022. He still works for the State Department, now on detail to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as their . . .

Clement E. Falbo (Zimbabwe) | MATHMATICAL MILESTONES

Apr 18 2023

Dr. Clement E. Falbo provides food for thought in an exquisite elucidation of mathematics Mathematical Milestones is about the historical and worldwide progress of mathematics and its uses over the years, especially in the most recent four centuries. The reader learns of the contributions from the Western World, the Middle East, Asia and other parts of the world. We tell stories about the important work done by the top Mathematicians, both men and women. We show that Mathematics is a branch of the humanities as well as the Sciences; it benefits from growth in other fields, such as business, art and technology. Finally, we reveal that Mathematics suffered its own version of an “uncertainty principle” that mathematics cannot be both consistent and complete, discovered by Kurt Godel in 1931. Dr. Clement E. Falbo was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. After serving four years in the U. . . .

The Wow Factor | Bonnie Lee Black (Gabon)

Apr 17 2023

by Bonnie Lee Black (Gabon 1996-98) • There’s a joke (una broma) that Mexicans in other parts of Mexico tell among themselves, I learned this week, that goes something like this: If you want to visit San Miguel de Allende, you’ll need to get a U.S. visa. In other words, Mexicans themselves don’t think of SMA as being in Mexico, it’s so overrun with us Norteamericano gringos. This broma, like most jokes, contains a large grain of truth. In the eight years I’ve lived here, I’ve often heard SMA being referred to as “Mexico Lite” and “Gringolandia.” In fact, in 2010 the director Dennis Lanson made a video titled “Gringolandia” about this very fact. According to the most recent estimates, we expats represent only about 10 percent of the residents of San Miguel, but our presence seems to me to be outsized. We gringos are everywhere, all the time – in all . . .

THE WORLD CUP IN QATAR | Steve Kaffen (Russia)

Apr 15 2023

It was a World Cup like no other. And author Steve Kaffen (Russia 1994-96) should know,this being his seventh. The 2022 World Cup in Qatar had everything: great soccer, memorable moments, surprising upsets, a remarkable final, plus controversies and a sustained effort by a small Middle Eastern country of sprawling sand desert to host the world’s most important sports event. The grand display of exciting matches and outstanding performances, day after day, captivated the world and brought to the sport a new generation of enthusiasts. It was also a World Cup of camaraderie for the fans in Qatar and those who gathered at homes and in venues all over the world to share the soccer experience. The author takes the reader to the event as a fan, attending matches with some of the best teams, taking in the 24-hour energy, and exploring Qatar’s rich history. Some 400 original photos . . .

The Transformative Power of Education | Jenna Mitchell (Malawi)

Apr 14 2023

Education can transform a life and the world. That statement drives Jenna Mitchler. She experienced it firsthand as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi and more recently in Tajikistan through the Fulbright Specialist Program. “I look for opportunities to learn about people who are different than myself — there’s so much value in diversity and difference,” she says. Mitchler joined the Peace Corps after earning her undergraduate degree — a major in English education with a minor in coaching — and taught English and HIV/AIDS education in Malawi in southeastern Africa. She also served as the president of northern Malawi’s Gender and Development Organization, which provides scholarships to girls to pay for secondary school fees. After her two years in the Peace Corps were up, Mitchler returned to the U.S. and began teaching high school English. However, some familiar strains kept playing in her ear. “While reflecting on my . . .

Author - John Coyne