Peace Corps Volunteers

  by Jane Albritton (India 1967-69) •   Aaron Barlow (Togo 1988-90) has died. His life had many chapters in it, including owner of the bookstore/café Shakespeare’s Sister; Fulbright Lecturer in American Literature at the University of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; cultural studies scholar and professor of English at New York City College of Technology; and Peace Corps Volunteer. There will be others who will memorialize Aaron’s life as a mentor, writer, and professor. What I want to recount here is how Aaron Barlow saved my bacon as I tried to navigate the narrows of publishing the four books in the Peace Corps at 50 Story Project. Begun in 2007 for the 2011 50th Anniversary, the story project seemed to me a slam dunk for publication. What house would not want a ready audience of 200,000 RPCVs? Zero, as it turned out, until Traveler’s Tales agreed to publish the work. By . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Monica Mills (PC/HQ 1995-2000)   “I’m very excited to announce I have joined the Biden Administration as the Chief Economist at the Department of Labor! I am excited to help build back a better economy where workers, especially those usually left behind, are safe, secure, & empowered at the workplace. Let’s get to work!” Janelle Jones was an economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute through 2018. She is an economic analyst working on a variety of labor market topics within EPI’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy (PREE) and the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN). She was previously a research associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), where she worked on topics including racial inequality, unemployment, job quality, and unions. Her research has been cited in The New Yorker, The Economist, Harper’s, The Washington Post, The Review of Black Political Economy, and other . . .

From Spectrum News in New York State:   “State Senator Samra Brouk is a freshman Democrat from Rochester who has spent much of her life working on behalf of others. After graduating from Williams College, Brouk volunteered with the Peace Corps in Guatemala, where she was a health educator. After her return to New York, she founded a non-profit, which enables seniors to age in place. Most recently, Brouk raised money for Chalkbeat, a grassroots journalism organization devoted to education.: Brouk spoke with Capital Tonight host Susan Arbetter about what she hopes to bring to Albany.  Here is the interview: https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/ny-state-of-politics/2021/01/04/meet-new-state-senator-samra-brouk–sd—55 • Please note:  Thank you to the group RPCVs for Political Action for this  important news. They posted on their Facebook page a link to the ZOOM ceremony in which Senator Brouk was sworn to office. I believe it is also noted in the ceremony that Senator Brouk is . . .

  From 1992 to 1994 Peace Corps Volunteer Alana DeJoseph was an enterprise development advisor in a small town in Mali, West Africa, consistently one of the 10 poorest nations in the world. Being a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer she understood that as walls are being built and nations are turning inward, a comprehensive documentary of this globally engaged American agency was urgently needed. Alana says: “In a time when the American public either has a very antiquated notion of the Peace Corps, informed by an almost mythological awe of the 60s, or is not even aware that the agency still exists, it is high time to bring this unique organization back into the public discourse, to raise the level of the discussion from quaint to crucial.” Alana has worked in video and film production for nearly 40 years. She began her career as a 10-year-old actress. Since then, she . . .

  The Board of Directors and the Strategic Council of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) are honoring Edward Mazria (Peru 1964-66), FAIA, with the 2021 Gold Medal. The Gold Medal honors an individual whose significant body of work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture. Mazria is being recognized for his work sounding the alarm on climate change and motivating the profession to take action. A native New Yorker and graduate of the Pratt Institute, Mazria received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the school and played on its basketball team, garnering attention from the New York Knicks. After being selected in the 11th round of the 1962 NBA draft, Mazria opted to serve in the Peace Corps in Peru, where he uncovered the notion that responsible architecture is the key to both social and environmental improvement. When he returned stateside to work in . . .

  Yuta Masuda (Georgia 2005-06) is a Senior Sustainable Development and Behavioral Scientist in Global Science at the Nature Conservancy. His work at the Conservancy investigates the impacts of conservation programs on human well-being, and he has a particular interest in gender, development, institutions, and human health. Yuta’s current work looks at integrating human well-being considerations into conservation programs to better understand their risks and benefits to people.      In addition, he is working on research on sustainable development, gender and conservation, technology-assisted data collection, and developing new indicators for human well-being.      Before joining the Conservancy in 2013, Yuta was a graduate student at the University of Washington where he did research on water infrastructure, time use, and gender in Ethiopia. Prior to that, he was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Republic of Georgia and also worked at RTI International as a Health Economics Research Assistant. . . .

Shenna Bellows sees new post as Maine’s secretary of state as dream job at a critical time The former state senator and executive director of the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine says her goals include increasing voter participation and protecting privacy. • BY SCOTT THISTLE PORTLAND PRESS HERALD     Shenna Bellows (Panama 1999-01) has had a rewarding career defending civil liberties for Maine’s ACLU chapter, managing educational programs for disadvantaged youths at Learning Works in Portland, and educating the public about the value of human rights at the state Holocaust and Human Rights Center. But all of it was simply preparation for what she calls her new dream job: Maine secretary of state. A Democratic state senator from Manchester, Bellows said much of her recent work has particular relevance because it often focused on the importance of individual and collective decision making in times of injustice. “And how important . . .

  Liz, where are you from in the States and where did you go to school? I was born and raised in New York City. I attended public schools, including the Bronx High School of Science, then I went to Boston University for undergrad and NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service for an MPA (on the Sargent Shriver RPCV Scholarship!). What led you to start your foundation? Your idea? I started CorpsAfrica to build on the enormous success of the Peace Corps. When I was a PCV, I met many educated young Moroccans who would ask me if they could be PCVs in order to help their country, and I had to say no. Their questions dogged me for 20 years because they deserved that opportunity. When the Peace Corps first started 60 years ago, in many African countries there were maybe two college graduates in the whole country. Now . . .

  Drew S. Days III (Honduras 1967-69), who was the first African American to head the civil rights division of the Justice Department and later became solicitor general under President Bill Clinton, died on Sunday at a long-term care facility in East Haven, Connecticut. He was 79. His wife, Ann Langdon-Days (Honduras 1967-69) said the cause was complications of dementia. Born in the segregated South, Days went to Yale Law School, fought for civil rights through the courts and enjoyed a meteoric career that might have led to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court if not for his legal opinion in an obscure child pornography case. He knew from an early age that he wanted to work for civil rights. “I rode segregated buses and I was from the era with the segregated lunch counters and water fountains,” he recalled in a 2014 interview with the Touro Law Review. . . .

  In 2000, when 25,000 families were displaced annually by violence in Colombia, RPCVs started The Colombia Project, a loan program to help families reestablish financial independence. It soon evolved to include any marginalized community and became TCP [The Colombia Project] Global in 2015, expanding to Niger, Guatemala and Peru. In October, this 100% volunteer effort achieved a significant milestone: $1 Million in loans issued. When 7,300 Peace Corps Volunteers were evacuated worldwide in March, due to the Corona Virus, six evacuees joined the TCP Global team, bringing new energy and creativity. The program went viral, adding thirty new sites, including five introduced by evacuees who worked with their counterparts virtually to introduce micro-loan programs. TCP Global currently serves fourteen countries in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.  An average loan is $210, ranging from $50 in Niger to $698 in Peru. While the program works anywhere, TCP focuses on underserved, . . .

How a young Peace Corps Volunteer’s chance encounter with a teacher in Thailand in 1966 touched over a million lives.   Thousand Currents By Bilen Mesfin Peace Corps’ Passport Blog   ONE HOT DAY in 1965, Paul Strasburg (Thailand 1964-66) was having lunch with his Thai counterparts near the village of Ban Nong Boa. A man in a civil service uniform approached the table. The man introduced himself as a teacher and told them his story. With no school, Boonthom Boonprasert was teaching his students outside. When it rained, school would be canceled. Cautiously and respectfully, Boonprasert asked Strasburg, then a young Peace Corps Volunteer, and his Thai colleagues: Could they help him build a school? Strasburg’s colleagues turned to him.“You are the American,” they said. “You guys have all the money.” In what would prove to be a pivotal moment, Strasburg agreed to find out what he could do. . . .