“Everyone is welcome to join us at the Third Goal Expos,” said Anne Baker, vice president of the National Peace Corps Association, who will be attending the event in Nashville. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re a formal member of the Peace Corps community or just an interested citizen, we’ll have something for you. And we’ve put a lot of attention into things that will help educators as well.”

The Third Goal Expos are designed to promote the third part of the Peace Corps’ mission: bringing the world back home. They include information and exhibits about countries where Peace Corps volunteers have served as well as discussions about the experiences and projects of individual volunteers.

The Nashville expo will be held on Saturday, June 23, from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Nashville Public Library on 615 Church Street. Becca Stevens of Thistle Farms will serve as the keynote speaker. Other notable guests include Deputy Director of the Peace Corps Carrie Hessler-Radelet, Vice President of the National Peace Corps Association Anne Baker and President of the Tennessee Returned Peace Corps Volunteers David Keiser.

The expo will feature the Peace Corps’ Speakers Match, Correspondence Match and Coverdell World Wise Schools programs and will showcase ways that educators and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers can share the Peace Corps experience in the classroom and in the community.

“If there’s one thing every Peace Corps volunteer brings back with them, it’s the stories,” added Baker. “No matter where they served, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers have a lot of interesting things to tell about their time overseas. For teachers, especially, they can be a great resource.”

Learn more about and register for the Nashville expo

From 2009-11, Thomas Lang served as a Business Volunteer in the country of Georgia. Photo: Peace Corps.

In this economy, businesses want to hire the most qualified, creative, intelligent, passionate candidate they can for a new position. We at the National Peace Corps Association think that people who have served in the Peace Corps – in a developing country with countless chances to develop cross-cultural skills and resourcefulness – make some of the best colleagues around. Here’s a short (slightly cheeky) list of why we think you should hire a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV).

1. We enjoy problem-solving. Need to put together a desk from IKEA, hang paintings, fix the copier, figure out that weird spreadsheet thing? There’s nothing a little duct tape won’t fix.
2. We can talk to anyone and are comfortable anywhere. Whether it’s the village chief, a market woman, a ministry official, or a cranky vendor … we have experience interacting with all kinds of people, in all kinds of settings. And often in a foreign language. Whether your business operates in Niger, Nicaragua, or Niagara Falls, we quickly get the lay of the land and get things done.
3. Save money on the staff retreat. No need to put us up in a fancy hotel on the Vegas strip. We’ll pass on the $16 muffins. Thanks to our modest Peace Corps living allowances, we’ve learned our way around a budget – and will respect yours.
4. Our contributions to the office potluck. Peanut stew, pupusas, Pad Thai, vodka … Congratulations!  Your office gathering just got more interesting.
5. We know our way around flipcharts. In fact, “brainstorming” and “creativity” are our middle names. Returned Peace Corps Volunteers know how to think outside of the box.
6. Overcoming uncertainty is second nature. If there’s one thing that unites Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, it’s this: We got on the plane. Despite the naysayers, we left all that was safe and familiar and departed for an unknown country for 27 months. That takes passion. That takes chutzpah. Teaching a class of unruly teens? Handling clients who keep changing their minds? Piece of cake.
7. We’re goal-oriented. If we can’t figure out how to get it done or who can get it done, we’ll find the kid who will.
8. Patience comes with the territory. After sitting through two years of day-long, under-the-tree meetings, drinking endless cups of tea to see our projects through, even the longest department meetings won’t faze us.
9. We’re pretty healthy. Because we’ve toughed our way through malaria, giardia, boils, schistosomiasis, scary fevers, and weird rashes in places we can’t discuss, we won’t call in sick for a “cold.”
10. We can take casual Friday to a whole new level. We have a certain … confidence.

With less than 200,000 of us in the workforce, we suggest that you hire a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer – before someone else does.

The National Peace Corps Association’s mission is to support RPCVs as they take their next step in changing the world.

Post your open position on the  Next Step Job Finder. You’ll be glad you did.

(RPCV Suzannah Ellis Johnston - Photo courtesy of Peace Corps)

“My third goal has become graduate school, thanks to a Peace Corps Fellowship I received from the Shriver Center at the University of Maryland Baltimore County to study for a Master’s degree in Public Policy there while working at Save the Children (US Programs) in Washington D.C.  I served in the Peace Corps from 2006-2009 in Macedonia, where I was a TEFL Volunteer, organized an inaugural national English essay contest and teacher training and facilitated the rehabilitation of a school library with the help of two Rotary Clubs (one Macedonian, one Minnesotan).” 

-Tara Gill

This year’s Peace Corps Connect gathering in Minneapolis is an academic opportunity for RPCVs in or recently finishing graduate or professional school to share, highlight and collaborate on research influenced directly or indirectly by their Peace Corps service.

Event: RPCV Graduate Research Conference “Bringing the World Home…to Grad School: Engaged Scholarship post-Peace Corps”
Time: 1:00 – 3:00pm on June 30
Location: Minneapolis Convention Center

Call for Presentations for the inaugural RPCV Graduate Research Conference. 

Was your third goal graduate or professional school? Has your Peace Corps experience informed your research directly or indirectly? As part of the NPCA Annual Gathering the Peace Corps community invites you to present your research in oral or poster format to your peers and wider Peace Corps Community.

All academic disciplines and topics welcome. Please join us!

The goal of the first graduate research conference is to establish a community of learning among RPCVs who take up their Third Goal in the form of graduate or professional school.  Our plan is to be fully inclusive of disciplines, topics, stages and styles of research and provide a constructive peer review format for providing feedback.

Registration & Abstract Submission Process
Register for Peace Corps Connect – Minneapolis 2012

Email the following information to Tara Trepanier Gill – Graduate Research Conference Coordinator at NPCA2012GRC@gmail.com by June 6, 2012:

• Name
• University & Graduation Year
• Department & Degree Program
• Peace Corps Country of Service & Years
• Type of Presentation (Oral/Poster)
• Title
• Abstract (~200 words)
• Contact Information

Peace Corps memorial plaque, Peace Corps Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

Rather than working in an organization whose purpose is to defend the country with arms, the Peace Corps puts us “on the front line” as it were, alone, armed with just our good intentions.

– Marion Mobley. Vietnam veteran. Peace Corps Volunteer/Botswana.

On this Memorial Day—as our nation remembers those who have given their lives to defend our country in times of war—we, at the National Peace Corps Association, also honor those Peace Corps volunteers, staff and returned volunteers who have lost their lives far from home while in service to the ideals of a world shaped in peace and understanding.

Since the Peace Corps began in 1961, nearly 200,000 Peace Corps Volunteers have served in 139 countries.  Of these dedicated men and women, 284 have sacrificed not only their energies and time, but also their lives while pursuing the Peace Corps mission. They are remembered on the memorial, pictured above, in the lobby of the Peace Corps Headquarters in Washington, DC, so that all may honor and celebrate their lives and service.

You can read the names of the 284 Peace Corps Volunteers who have died in service over the past 50 years below.  You can also visit the website of the Fallen Peace Corps Volunteers Memorial Project, which provides additional information.

(* died very shortly following Close of Service, often in-country and/or of service-related causes)

BARBADOS

Carla Stoffle (67-67), dean of libraries at the University of Arizona, has been awarded the Joseph W. Lippincott Award. She has worked in this position for the last two decades. Prior to this, Stoffle worked at Eastern Kentucky University. The award is given annually to an individual who has provided distinguished service to the profession of librarianship.

COLOMBIA

Congressman Sam Farr (62-64) was awarded the Organic Trade Association’s Public Service Award. Farr, a member of Congress since 1993, has been a major supporter of the organic sector for more than three decades. He co-chairs the House Organic Caucus and is a ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Agriculture. Prior to his position in Congress, Farr served on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors and was a budget staffer for the California State Assembly.

ECUADOR, WASHINGTON DC

Howard Dodson, Jr. (64-66) is the new director of the Howard University Libraries and its flagship Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. In April 2010, Dodson retired from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City after 25 years of work. In July 2011, he became a consultant to the Howard system. Dodson was a member of the commission that recommended building the National Museum of African American History and Culture and a former consultant to the National Endowment for the Humanities.

KAZAKHSTAN

In honor of National Public Safety Telecommunications Week, Meghan McGee was honored by the Paradise Police Department for her work. She joined the department in July 2009 as a full-time public safety dispatcher. Prior to that, she was a recruiter for the California Conservation Corps.

MALAYSIA

Gretchen Robinette (68-69) was honored as one of the most outstanding women from South Pasadena, Calif., by Rep. Adam Schiff. She was a teacher and librarian throughout most of her professional career, and upon her retirement a decade ago, she joined her husband’s CPA firm, where she is now the office manager. Robinette serves on the Board of Directors for the South Pasadena Preservation Foundation, chairs the South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce Legislative Affairs Committee and serves as a Chamber of Commerce Ambassador. She also serves as a board member for Women Involved in South Pasadena Political Action. Robinette has a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles.

NEPAL

Jacqueline Rahm (87-90) was awarded the Peace Corps Paul D. Coverdell Fellowship by the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The award will go toward her dissertation work for her doctorate.

TOGO

The Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood of the North Country New York, Inc., has appointed Betsy Brown as the president and CEO. Brown has worked on federally funded planning-service programs in Latin America and the Caribbean, West and East Africa and several countries in the Soviet Union. Most recently, she has been running a consulting practice, volunteering for Planned Parenthood and working as a member of a mobile Wellness Outreach Team.

WESTERN SAMOA

The University of Hawai’i Board of Regents has appointed four new members including John C. Dean (69-71), who represents Honolulu County. Dean is president and chief executive officer of Central Pacific Bank and Central Pacific Financial Corporation. He has 31 years of experience in the banking industry. Dean is a graduate of Holy Cross College and Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

(Photo courtesy of Peace Corps)

Noncompetitive eligibility (NCE) is a fantastic hiring status given to Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) upon their completion of service (COS). It allows (but does not require) federal agencies to hire RPCVs with NCE who meet the minimum qualifications of a job quickly and easily (i.e., without posting announcements and screening/interviewing candidate via the traditional, competitive process). While NCE is granted to RPCVs for one year after COS, it can be extended for up to three years for academic study, military service, or (and this is the part many RPCVs and employers underestimate), if RPCVs are engaged in any activities which, “in the view of the appointing authority, warrant an extension of such period.”

“Most of the calls we field daily are from RPCVs who mistakenly think the Peace Corps can extend NCE (it’s up to the hiring agency to do this) or from federal employers who ask – ‘Can it really be this easy?’ said Eileen Conoboy, Director of the Office of Third Goal and Returned Volunteer Services at the Peace Corps.  “That’s why we created a one-stop-shop last year to demystify NCE and help both RPCVs and employers better understand how they can leverage this hiring mechanism for their mutual benefit.” The www.peacecorps.gov/nce site has FAQs and other resources for RPCVs as well as an “Everything You Need to Know about Noncompetitive Eligibility” guide for federal agencies to reassure employers that, yes, it really is that easy!

RPCV Maggie Rudick (The Gambia, 2008-2010) is just one of many RPCVs who have leveraged NCE to land a federal job. She secured her position as an Environmental Protection Specialist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through her attendance at the February 2011 National RPCV Career Fair in Washington, D.C. Her current boss was at the fair, specifically collecting résumés from RPCVs with NCE status because they were looking to hire quickly. “Having NCE status made it easier for me to set up informational interviews and network among other RPCVs throughout different agencies,” said Maggie.

The Peace Corps’ Office of Third Goal and Returned Volunteer Services and NPCA are working together to help promote a better understanding of NCE among RPCVs and employers, and to increase career opportunities for RPCVs. Recently NPCA, along with the Peace Corps employees union, sent a letter to Peace Corps Director Aaron Williams asking the agency to explore ways to strengthen the benefit for Returned Volunteers. You can read his reply here.

Note: Returned Volunteer Services (RVS) is offering a free NCE webinar for PCVs and RPCVs on Thursday, May 24^th at 1 p.m. EST. To register visit, www.peacecorps.gov/rpcv/events.

The talent and experience possessed by each NCE hire is exceptional.More importantly, each RPCV … brings a uniquely global perspective and commitment to the agency’s mission of eradicating employment discrimination. Our relationship with the Peace Corps has been remarkable, and our successful recruiting efforts have set a benchmark for EEOC offices nationwide. Without exception, partnering with the Peace Corps … continues to be a win-win situation.”

- Debra Wilson-Sumbry, District Resources Manager, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Want to hire an RPCV? Employers can also post openings on NPCA’s Next Step Job Finder site. Federal openings can be posted at no cost.

[Thank you to Erica Herrmann (Cambodia 07-09), Peace Corps Office of Third Goal and Returned Volunteer Services, for her assistance with this article.]

Many of us joined the Peace Corps because of the incredible Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) that we met along the way.  And often much of the success we’ve had as Volunteers has been thanks to those people too.

Last month Travis Hellstrom launched a worldwide online course called Peace Corps 101 to bring those incredible people together, give them a forum to talk in real-time no matter where they might be on the planet, and collect their wisdom and enthusiasm together in one (recordable) place. It’s founded on a simple idea: alone we may go quickly but together we can go far.

After six weeks, the class finished up on May 10th and had included current applicants, recruiters, serving Volunteers, former Peace Corps staff, National Peace Corps Association staff and RPCVs from every background imaginable. Peace Corps 101 covered the entire Peace Corps experience from applying to coming home and being part of the worldwide Peace Corps family. After attending class Kevin Quigley, President of the National Peace Corps Association, wrote,

“In an exemplary Peace Corps fashion, in Peace Corps 101 Travis Hellstrom has wedded together an innovative on-line platform and the traditional Volunteer passion to make a difference into an invaluable resource for serving and returned Peace Corps volunteers. The entire Peace Corps community owes Travis an enormous debt for this outstanding example of “continuing to serve.”

As we wrote last month when we featured it here in our Polyglot blog, Peace Corps 101 was the first en*theos Academy course focused entirely on service with proceeds going to the Peace Corps Partnership Program and NPCA’s Global Community Fund. The class is also available for free to anyone who wanted to attend (or wants to download the entire class now that it is completed).

“The idea behind Peace Corps 101 all along has been to bring the Peace Corps community into a group call and help each other through our service, whether we’re just starting or we’ve been at it for 50+ years,” writes Travis. “I joined the Peace Corps because the Volunteers and RPCVs that I met were literally some of the best people I have ever met in my entire life and bringing all those people on to a conference call has been amazing. I feel very lucky to be part of such a great group. Even though the class has finished, it will always be available for download anytime at PeaceCorps101.com.” 

And that’s just the beginning…

Moving Forward

As the class ended Travis decided to launch Peace Corps 101 Interviews hosted by en*theos Radio, where he could sit down with PCVs and RPCVs from around the world, including many of the outstanding Professors who taught in the Peace Corps 101. Our very own Molly Mattessich will be one of the first interviews to be posted.

Also, in June Travis will be launching a new course called Everyday Service where he will be talking with everyday humanitarians from around the planet about awesome ways they are changing the world. The course will feature national and international organizations like AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, the Fulbright Program and more, but also look at unconventional service, making a difference while making a profit, and the changing landscape of the new economy, social businesses, nonprofits, corporate philanthropy and much more. Like Peace Corps 101, proceeds from this class will go to service organizations around the world – only this time class participants can choose from the dozens of organizations they have represented in class.

“Just as Peace Corps is an adventure filled with amazing people,” says Travis, “these courses have been a blast to organize and take part in. I’d love for you to come along for the ride.”

In a decision that keeps in play the possibility that Peace Corps will return to its high-water funding level of more than two years ago, the Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday recommended $400 million for the Peace Corps for Fiscal Year 2013.  This follows Tuesday’s recommendation by its State/Foreign Operations Subcommittee to approve that level of funding.

This recommendation is $25 million above the $375 million requested by President Obama, and supported last week by the House Appropriations Committee.

While there are still a number of deliberations and votes to come in the process, the opportunity now presents itself to return funding to a level that – up until now – has sustained more than 9,000 Peace Corps Volunteers and trainees in the field, the highest number of volunteers in more than four decades.  Further action will be needed in the Senate to continue supporting the $400 million.  Should that figure hold, the Senate and House would likely need to come together and agree on a final Peace Corps funding figure in the coming months.

This show of support for the Peace Corps was part of a 29 – 1 Committee vote in favor of a $52.1 billion funding package.  Read this news release from InterAction about the vote.

For now, if you are a constituent of members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, please contact them to thank them for their leadership in supporting $400 million for the Peace Corps for Fiscal Year 2013.    Special thanks should go to Subcommittee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Ranking Member Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

Read NPCA’s thank you letter to Senators Leahy and Graham.

Additionally, if you are constituents of Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Johnny Isakson (R-GA), you should also thank them for their earlier efforts to co-author a letter signed by 32 Senators urging strong support for Peace Corps funding.

You can contact the office of your Senators by calling the Capitol Hill switchboard (202-224-3121) and asking to be connected to their office.

Follow this link for an overview on funding for Peace Corps and other programs included in the State/Foreign Operations bill.  

Gail Hughes taught English at Masentle and Bereng secondary schools in Mafeteng, Lesotho, 1970-1972. “My Peace Corps experience was (like for probably every Peace Corps Volunteer) a defining event in my life!”, she says. Gail has been living in Minneapolis since her return from serving in the Peace Corps.

“Although I taught high school English for a year in Portland, Oregon before joining the Peace Corps, the market for teachers had plummeted and I couldn’t get my old job back. I decided to go to graduate school upon my return, and have basically been here ever since.”

Gail served as a Program Evaluator with the Minnesota Community Colleges, then taught Sociology, Interdisciplinary Social Science, and Global Studies at St. Cloud State University. “At present, I’m advising doctoral students and teaching “International and Multicultural Perspectives in Adult Ed” through Capella University (an online University).”

Why Gail’s Coming to Minneapolis

“It’s important to me to keep in touch with RPCVs to keep abreast of what’s happening in the countries of service, and also because I know that I will find like-minded people with whom to share ideas. I look forward to the conference!”

Climate change hurts farmers. Harry Bennett (Belize 02-04) at a teach-in in Madison, WI.

Returned Peace Corps Volunteers continue to make a difference long after their service overseas — Peace Corps service is just the first step in changing the world. Harry Bennett (Belize 2002-04) is one such Volunteer.  Here, he writes about his climate change advocacy.

As a member of Madison 350.org and part of the committee that planned the participation in the worldwide action/education event promoted by 350.org, I had a hand in helping to shape the event.  We decided to use the Dane County Farmers Market at the Capital Square in Madison as the location for our event, a “teach in” to educate the public on the relationship between climate change and food production.  I volunteered to be a speaker at the event and decided my part would be a bit of information about my work and then a contrasting story involving my Peace Corps service.

After Peace Corps, Helping Farmers at Home

Since returning from Peace Corps service in 2004 I have been employed as Market Coordinator for the Kansas Organic Producers Association, a producer cooperative with 100 member/producers in Kansas and surrounding states.  We market certified organically produced grains, oil seeds and hay to domestic and international buyers and have average sales of around $5 million annually.  I related several stories about the radical weather that I have been hearing about daily from my farmer members:  100+ degree temperatures in April, winter wheat heading out 30 days early and at risk from frost and very violent torrential rains.  Many of our farmers are older and have farmed for 40 years or more and report that they have never seen such unpredictable and hot weather.

Peace Corps Service in Belize

I then switched my story to a different group of farmers that I know.  In 2002 my wife and I started our Peace Corps service in San Jose Village, Toledo, Belize, CA.  San Jose is a Mopan Mayan village in the south of Belize in the foothills of the Maya Mountains about 40 miles from the coastal district town of Punta Gorda.  The village has a population of 800 persons with about 130 households, everyone farms in the village except the primary school teachers.

My Peace Corps Volunteer program was Sustainable Agriculture/Rural Community Development and had me working closely with the farmers in cooperative marketing development and expansion of cash crops.  All of the farmers grew corn, beans, rice and vegetables using primarily organic techniques, these crops were first and foremost for their own consumption with any excess for livestock and outside sale.  San Jose does not have electric service and the pressure water system is by gravity from a tank on a mountain top that is filled by a pump on a well powered by a small solar photovoltaic array.  There are no personnel vehicles in San Jose- transportation around the village is by foot, bicycle or horseback, there are two old used school buses that serve at transportation to Punta Gorda four days a week.  Village youth whose families can afford high school tuition have to travel by school bus to one of two high schools in the district town.

On a visit back to San Jose in January 2012 we found that things in the village were mostly unchanged from when we left in 2004 except that there was some limited cell phone service and the village was almost finished with a new solar array that would supply electricity to the school and homes within a 700 feet radius.  The plan is to construct new arrays in the future to bring solar electricity to other households in the village, several young people in the village are being trained to install and maintain the solar panels and equipment.

Farmers in Belize Experience Climate Change Effects

When we arrived in San Jose Village in 2002 I was amazed at the conversations and amount of knowledge that the villagers had of climate change and effects on their lives.  The farmers had already begun to notice that the very predictable change from dry season to wet season was becoming erratic and that rain patterns were shifting.  Temperatures during the dry season have risen markedly, causing increased fire risk.  The changes have made corn planting, that must be timed at the end of the dry season before the onset of the rains, very difficult and threatening to the primary food crop.

Belize is also experiencing an increase in Dengue Fever outbreaks that are attributed to an overall increase in temperatures and rainfall that favor mosquito breeding.  The coastal areas of Belize are feeling the effects of sea level rise with the destruction of the mangrove trees that are vital to holding the sea shore intact and providing a habitat for fishery health.  Higher seawater temperatures are resulting in death to the coral in the barrier reef off the coast of Belize that is the second largest in the world.

Small Carbon Footprint, Doing the Right Thing

My point here is that in the village of San Jose there is a population of people with a “carbon footprint” that is hardly measurable when compared with a similar population in the United States.  When you examine their lifestyle they are the model of what is being touted as the solutions to controlling climate change: highly developed local organic food system, exclusive use of public and non motorized transportation, low impact bio-degradable housing and developing renewable nonpolluting electrical generation.

Despite the efforts of San Jose, they are not going to reduce the effects of climate change because it is now known that the tropical areas of the world near the equator will be experiencing the most dramatic effects of climate change.  The true injustice here is that the Mayan people in San Jose did not contribute to the fossil fuel driven rise in Parts Per Million of carbon in the atmosphere, yet they will suffer the consequences sooner and harsher than we in North America.  I have no doubts that present and future Peace Corps Volunteers are going to find themselves having to observe and deal with the effects of climate change in their host countries.

Thanks to Harry Bennett (Belize, 2002-04) for contributing this blog post.