The Peace Corps

  August 14, 2017 A volunteer explains — with poetry — why teaching physics to girls in Guinea, west Africa is so important to her By Lisa Einstein (Guinea 2016-18) This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American  . . .    I sat on the porch in my village of farms, When a young girl approached me, a babe in her arms. We started to talk, though a lot went unspoken. Her words were Pular and her French, it was broken. I asked her what grade she was in and she scoffed. “Failed the Brevet so dad married me off. The class all must pass this exam to continue To high school. I didn’t, in take 1 or take 2. Mon mari, il est vieux, an old man I don’t see. And now with this child? . . .

  According to Foreign Policy Magazine    Newswise — Washington, D.C. (July 30, 2024) – American University’s (AU) School of International Service (SIS) was identified in the top-tier of international relations programs around the world at the undergraduate, masters, and PhD levels by Foreign Policy magazine. The SIS masters and undergraduate programs both rank in the top 10, with the master’s program placing eighth and the undergraduate program also ranking eighth, up one spot from previous rankings. In their first published rankings since 2018, Foreign Policy added two additional sets of rankings in each category, one by policymakers and the other from think tank staff. SIS’s undergraduate program ranks 10th amongst policymakers and 11th amongst think tank staff. SIS’s master’s program ranks 10th amongst policymakers and 12th amongst think tank staff. “We’re proud of this recognition,” said SIS dean Shannon Hader, MD, MPH. “It speaks to our success in educating global leaders who will engage with . . .

    Polls suggest young Americans are less enchanted with their country than previous generations. Yet even those who want to serve their country, conducting some form of national service, are too often turned away by top programs. The opposite should be true: Volunteer organizations such as AmeriCorps, Teach for America, the Peace Corps and the newly formed American Climate Corps should be well-funded and encouraged. National service could become a pervasive post-graduation option that all young Americans consider. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak this year proposed a national service plan that would have granted young adults the option of enrolling in a year-long military training program or committing to civil service one weekend every month for the same amount of time. The proposal was highly unpopular, with Brits balking at what they saw as the effective conscription of their nation’s youths. The idea has more support here in the . . .

  Recovery by Vincent Spine (Peru 1966-69) Independently Published June 2024 141 pages $11.00 (Paperback)   Unlike most poets, who can be either primarily narrativists or lyrical luminaries, Vincent Spina can be both and more. Think of Wallace Stevens but more human; think of John. Ashbury’s pyrotechnics and add a rich heart. Throw in a combination of cultural soulfulness and environmental sensitivity, all somehow shaped by his profound wisdom of how the human drama is interwoven by both. Now add Spina’s absorption of Quichua and Latin American culture — and we have an approximation of Vincent Spina’s singularity as an American poet. But it is in the poems, ultimately, where Spina plunges in like a diver with his cargo of poetic resources and resurfaces with bits of scintillating jewels, elevating us, his fellow-travelers, to the ultimate of communions: poet to reader, human to human.  . . .  Meet Vincent Spina by Lynn . . .

  Alana DeJoseph is a documentary filmmaker who directed A Towering Task: The Story of the Peace Corps in 2019. The documentary premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and is available to stream on PBS. DeJoseph served in Mali from 1992–1994 and has also worked on other documentaries, including The Greatest Good: A Forest Service Centennial Film and Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land. A Towering Task explores the history of the Peace Corps. The documentary features interviews with Harry Belafonte, Annette Bening, Jimmy Carter, and Chris Dodd, among others. Last night, July 20, 2024, her film  A Towering Task: The Story of the Peace Corps won the regional Emmy for  best historical documentary! The Heartland Emmy Awards Winners An incredible team of filmmakers (special shout-out to screenwriter Shana Kelly and editor Brian De Herrera-Schnering), 100s of volunteers, the most amazing Peace Corps community of PCVs, host . . .

  Flashpoints of Awareness: Lessons Learned from a Life  by Tarra Judson Stariell (Colombia 1973-74) Ranch House Press November 2023 69 pages $10.99 (Paperback), $4.99 (Kindle) . . . Escondido, CA – Trauma is an aspect of life few of us escape. From psychology to pharmaceuticals to spirituality, many therapies are available for healing and yet, healing from intense trauma remains elusive. Author Tarra Judson Stariell (Colombia 1973-74) knows all too well the challenges and benefits healing from trauma can bring. After joining the Peace Corps she returned to her native California to share a paranormal message she had received, asking her to “return home and share with your family and others that life as you know it on Planet Earth will end if humans do not change the way they are living.” After having desperately sought a way to impart this message from various disciplines, philosophies, religions, and modalities, she ended . . .

Credit…Damon Winter/The New York Times Peter Navarro (Thailand 1965-68) walked out of federal prison Wednesday morning and walked into the Republican convention Wednesday evening to deliver a law-defying, teeth-baring, knife-wielding speech that was one of the more bizarre convention moments I’ve ever seen. Navarro, who was the trade representative in the Trump administration, spent the last four months in the Federal Correction Institute in Miami, having been convicted by a Washington jury in September of contempt of Congress for failing to respond to a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee. To the audience here in Milwaukee, there is no badge of honor more awesome than a conviction for the sacred MAGA cause, and a prison term elevates that conviction to martyrdom, which is why the party instantly capitalized on his timely release. To the cheering crowd, Navarro milked every moment of suffering in the low-security tropical prison (where you can buy butter-pecan ice cream, . . .

Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World by Casey Michel (Kazakstan 2011) St. Martins Press August 2024 $14.99 (Kindle); $17.71 (Audiobook); $27.90 (Hardcover)       For years, one group of Americans has worked as foot-soldiers for the most authoritarian regimes around the planet. In the process, they’ve not only entrenched dictatorships and spread kleptocratic networks, but they’ve secretly guided U.S. policy without the rest of America even being aware. And now, some of them have begun turning their sights on American democracy itself. These Americans are known as foreign lobbyists, and many of them spent years ushering dictatorships directly into the halls of Washington, all while laundering the reputations of the most heinous, repressive regimes in the process. These foreign lobbyists include figures like Ivy Lee, the inventor of the public relations industry—a man who whitewashed Mussolini, opened doors to the Soviets, and advised the . . .