Miscellany

Reported by Jonathan Pearson (Micronesia 1987-89) Advocacy Director for the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) on Tuesday, March 4, 2014 President Obama submitted a Fiscal Year 2015 budget to Congress which requests virtually the same level of overall funding for the State Department and other international affairs programs, including the Peace Corps. The President is requesting $42.6 billion for the State Department and other International Affairs programs, about a 0.2% decrease from spending in the current fiscal year. The Peace Corps fared only marginally better, as the President is requesting $380 million for the fiscal year that begins next October. That’s a one million dollar increase from current funding, which is about 0.3% above current funding. Pearson reports that RPCV Congressman Sam Farr  is expected to begin circulating his annual “Dear Colleague” letter, urging support for increased funding for the Peace Corps.

VOTE TODAY FOR KINKY FRIEDMAN (BORNEO 1967-69) Willie Nelson’s bud Kinky Friedman wants to become Texas’ next Agriculture Commissioner. So it should come as no surprise that he’s made the upcoming election “a referendum on lifting the prohibition on pot and hemp.” “Prohibition simply doesn’t work,” Friedman writes on his campaign website. “Lifting the prohibition is not about long-haired hippies smoking dope; it’s about the economy, the environment, water conservation, education, the border, health care, criminal justice (and injustice!). It’s about the future of this great state.” On the homepage of the site, it reads in big letters: “Kinky Says Legalize Now!” Musician, author, humorist and political hopeful, Friedman is best known as the leader of his band, the Texas Jewboys. These days he’s set his sights on making a difference working at the highest level of state government. Friedman has lost several previous races but is trying again to win the upcoming . . .

Erik Lang (Guatemala 1987-90) is an attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He works in the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices.  Erik is also a Screener for AFI Docs, a documentary film festival in Washington DC that is held every year in June. His blog is  Worthy Mouse Clicks. Erik was nice enough to send me a heads up on this link to the Amrican University Peace Corps collection. He wrote me: I made the video above about the Peace Corps Archive at a recent history event organized by Jesse Bailey who is the Historian of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Washington (RPCV/W).  He moderated a panel discussion about the history of RPCV/W.  The participants were all former board members of RPCV/W.  There were even many audience members who were very steeped in the history of the Peace . . .

[Kitty Thuermer (Mali 1977-79) attended the Peace Corps Acting Director’s talk at the National Press Club last week and was kind enough to send me her impressions of Carrie Hessler-Radelet and the presentation by the Peace Corps.] • How fitting that Carrie Hessler-Radelet, Acting Peace Corps Director, spoke in the Edward R. Murrow room at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. on February 27th. Imagine CBS News broadcaster Edward R. Murrow, tall, lanky and cranky — the man whose voice signaled hope to a generation of World War II fighters — imagine him as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Sporting a bush jacket, head wreathed in a cloud of cigarette smoke, he would be just the guy to help launch a community radio program in rural South America. Murrow would also be the first to embrace new technology and wrestle it into service in the field.  Which is exactly what . . .

From The Peace Corps Press Office Remarks of Carrie Hessler-Radelet Acting Director, Peace Corps “Honoring Peace Corps Week in the 21st Century” National Press Club, Washington, D.C. AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY February 27, 2014 I’m honored to join you all today in celebrating Peace Corps Week, which commemorates the anniversary of our founding. Each year, during this week, the Peace Corps community comes together across the nation, and around the world, to renew our commitment to service. It’s great to be here at the National Press Club. Let me tell you what the press had to say about Peace Corps in our early days. In 1961, TIME magazine described the first groups of Volunteers in this way: “Peace Corps Volunteers are patriotic and adventuresome….with the patience of Job, the perseverance of a Saint, and the digestive system of an Ostrich.” Personally, I’m not quite sure what it means to have . . .

A Writer Writes My Philomena by Tony Gambino (Zaire 1979-82) [Tony Gambino taught  TEFL for one year in a rural high school and then spent two years teaching at the branch of the Zairian National University in Kisangani. In 2001 he returned to the Congo as the Mission Director for USAID. He is sure that he is one of a very small number of RPCVs who returned to serve as USAID Mission Director in their country of service. (Many RPCVs have become USAID Mission Directors, but didn’t do so in their country of service.) Today he is a consultant working on international issues and lives in the Washington, D.C., area. This essay by Tony appeared on February 25, 2014 on the website Slate. It is republished by Tony’s permission. It is the story of one son’s search for his biological mother.] Tony and his biological mother, Dorothy The story of Philomena Lee and . . .

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Press Office, 202.692.2230 Peace Corps Week Celebrates Volunteers’ Contributions at Home and Abroad for Peace Corps’ 53rd Anniversary WASHINGTON, D.C., February 24, 2014 – Ahead of the Peace Corps’ 53rd anniversary on March 1, the agency today kicks off Peace Corps Week to celebrate the contributions of the Peace Corps community both at home and abroad and highlight the importance of service in the 21st century. Through Saturday, March 1, Peace Corps Acting Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet and current and returned Peace Corps volunteers will participate in recruitment events, service projects and networking activities taking place across the country. “Peace Corps Week is about sharing the volunteer experience and the incredible cultural exchange that results from Peace Corps service,” Hessler-Radelet said. “I encourage both current and returned volunteers to participate in Peace Corps Week to share the world with their local communities and bring Peace Corps service to life.” Hessler-Radelet will participate . . .

[If you are in the D.C. Area email the press office at the Peace Corps and tell them you are covering the event for our website. Take photos.] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014 Peace Corps Acting Director to Speak at the National Press Club on Peace Corps in the 21st Century Remarks Also Commemorate Peace Corps Week and the Agency’s 53rd Anniversary WASHINGTON, D.C. – Peace Corps Acting Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet will deliver remarks at the National Press Club on the Peace Corps in the 21st century on Thursday, February 27 at 1:30 pm. Hessler-Radelet will discuss how Peace Corps reforms and policies are bridging its founding ideals with innovative solutions to the most pressing modern challenges. Peace Corps volunteers work toward sustainable change in the farthest corners of the world and return home with cross-cultural, leadership and language skills that strengthen international ties and increase our country’s . . .

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 24, 2014 – The Peace Corps today announced that all Peace Corps Ukraine volunteers are safe and accounted for, and have been successfully evacuated out of the country.  The agency will continue to assess the safety and security climate in Ukraine.  And while the Peace Corps hopes volunteers can return, the safety and security of its volunteers are the agency’s top priority. Over 200 Peace Corps Ukraine volunteers were working in the areas of education and youth and community development.  Volunteers will participate in a transition conference this week.  Since the program was established in 1992, over 2,740 Peace Corps volunteers have served in Ukraine.

Peace Corps Mission To help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women, promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served and promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans. Best Places to Work Ranking 2013 The Peace Corps: # 4 of 29 small agencies Top Five 1) Surface Transportation Board 2) National Endowment for the Humanities 3) Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service 4) The Peace Corps 5) Federal Retirement thrift Investment Board. Note: The Peace Corps ‘dropped’ in ‘Like Me’ from 81.5% in 2012 to 78.2% in 2013. C’mon everyone at HQ, start saying ‘hello’ on those elevators! Invite an RPCV to lunch! Smile at a HCN! More (much more) information about the Agency at: http://bestplacestowork.org/BPTW/rankings/overall/small

Peace Corps Press Release WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 4, 2014 – The Peace Corps today announced new partnerships with six universities and colleges accepted into the Peace Corps Prep Program. The collaboration offers students a unique combination of undergraduate coursework and community service that prepares them for work in international development. Students at Arcadia University; Georgia Gwinnett College; Hiram College; University of Washington, Tacoma; Ursinus College; and Wilmington College can apply to their school’s new Peace Corps Prep Program for enrollment beginning fall 2014. “We are thrilled to partner with each of these schools to expand the Peace Corps Prep Program,” Peace Corps Acting Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet said. “This program is a wonderful example of our growing efforts to foster stronger collaboration with colleges and universities nationwide to prepare civic-minded students for international service.” Each school independently designs its program based on specified criteria that reflects Peace Corps’ grassroots, integrated approach. A . . .

Kathleen Kanne, a senior in the American Studies Department at the University of Minnesota, is doing a research project on the “deselection” process in the early days of Peace Corps training (primarily through the 1960s and 70s). She is looking to interview RPCVs from this era who had colleagues who were deselected or who were deselected themselves. I wrote her about her study (one of my hopes is that we can get more and more academic studies done about the Peace Corps at the college and university levels) and Kathy wrote back, “My project is in its early stages, but it is tentatively focused on PCVs as representatives of American culture abroad and specifically the role deselection played in creating that image in the early days of the movement. “Because it seems to be more prevalent in the 60s and early 70s, that is the time frame I have been focusing on, . . .

Applications to the Peace Corps are down Posted by Joanne Roll on Thursday, February 13th 2014 This information is copied from the 2013 Peace Corps Annual Performance and Accountability Report, page 21.   Here is the text to link to: http://files.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/policies/annrept2013.pdf “Reduction in the percentage of Volunteer positions that were filled byapplicants for service (Indicator 4.1.1.b): Over the past three years, the agency has experienced difficulties in providing the number of Volunteers that have been requested by overseas posts. The number of Volunteers requested by a post represents the number of funded Volunteer positions that the post can fully support for 27 months of service. When Volunteer requests are not fully met, it represents a missed opportunity for the communities expecting Volunteers and for the talented and motivated Americans who could have served as Volunteers. The primary challenge in providing skilled Volunteers at the levels requested by posts   is the decrease in the number of applications for Peace Corps service over the last . . .

[This recognition of top producing colleges and universities recruitment was established by Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan (1995-99). This recognition  was the first time since the early years and Blitz Recruiting, created by Bob Gale, that the agency has focused on colleges campuses, the source of the majority of all PCVs.] Peace Corps Press Release WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 11, 2014 – For the first time in eight years, the University of Wisconsin-Madison leads Peace Corps’ 2014 rankings of the top volunteer-producing colleges and universities with 90 alumni currently serving as Peace Corps volunteers. The school has long been one of the nation’s greatest recruiters, most recently holding the No. 1 spot from 2001 through 2006, and has been working to reclaim the top spot ever since. Western Washington University and Gonzaga University top the rankings of medium and small schools for the second consecutive year, with 65 and 22 currently serving . . .

Peace Corps is going to do a “google hangout” which will be a chat with Peace Corps  Response Volunteers.  Here is the information from Peace Corps.gov and link: Google+ Hangout February 11 at 1 p.m. EST https://plus.google.com/events/csaun6nbi10mp00ojjocn494g4k Regarding the Hangout you should not have to create a Google account to watch. If you click on to the link https://plus.google.com/events/csaun6nbi10mp00ojjocn494g4k at 1PM EST tomorrow it should all work, providing that technology corporates with the agency. Following the event tomorrow, a recorded version will be available on Peace Corps’ YouTube page.