Letters: Readers Respond to the Summer 2021 edition of WorldView and Snapshots of Peace Corps History
Peace Corps Response at 25. Sarge leads the first Volunteers. Budget advocacy. Remembering 9/11 two decades later. JFK at the Cow Palace in ’60. Letters, emails, LinkedIn and Instagram comments, Facebook posts, tweets, and other missives: Readers respond to the stories in words and images in the Summer 2021 edition of WorldView, special digital features, and the conversation on social media. We’re happy to hear from you there and here: worldview@peacecorpsconnect.org An anniversary. A pandemic. Peace Corps Response. Great magazine — I always read it cover to cover. Congratulations! Nancy Hatch Nepal 1966–69 Big Picture: Sarge Leads Photo courtesy John F. Kennedy Library and...
Meet the Team Behind the 60th-Anniversary Edition of WorldView
The editorial and creative teams who put together the special anniversary edition of WorldView magazine for digital and print PUBLISHER | Glenn Blumhorst EDITOR | Steven Boyd Saum EDITOR EMERITUS | David Arnold ART DIRECTOR | Pamela Fogg CONTRIBUTING EDITOR | John Coyne ASSOCIATE EDITOR, GLOBAL STORIES | Tiffany James DIGITAL CONTENT MANAGER | Orrin Luc WORLDVIEW INTERN | Nathalie Vadnais CONTRIBUTORS COVER Tim O’Brien ILLUSTRATION Anna+Elena=Balbusso, Melinda Beck, Miguel Davilla, Edward Rooks PHOTOGRAPHY Al Golub, Sheldon Johnson, Bebeto Matthews, Kimberly Mazza, Yoichi Okamoto, Anthony Ricci, Abbie Rowe, Rowland Scherman, Eli Wittum WRITING Baktash Ahadi, Glenn Blumhorst, Shaylyn Romney Garrett, Reed Hastings, Bill Josephson, Jonathan Pearson SPEAKERS...
The Peace Corps at Sixty: A Timeline of Six Decades of Service — and Snapshots from the Wider World
Some moments that have defined the Peace Corps from 1960 to today. Plus a year-by-year look at countries where Peace Corps programs began. Researched by Ellery Pollard, Emi Krishnamurthy, Sarah Steindl, Nathalie Vadnais, and Orrin Luc At right: the 10th-anniversary Peace Corps stamp, issued in 1972. Image courtesy Peace Corps As part of the 60th anniversary of the Peace Corps in 2021, WorldView magazine has published a series of timelines tracking Peace Corps’ beginnings — and we’ve traced the 25-year history of Peace Corps Response. Explore more here: Annotation: Changing World | The Globe in 1961, the year the Peace Corps was founded...
A Life-Altering Detour — And a Summer Camp Project That Became Part of National Educational Curriculum in Jordan
We wanted to understand the world through action, and we wanted to serve. That changed the path of my life. By Shaylyn Romney Garrett Photo: Students in Jordan work with Shaylyn Romney Garrett on critical thinking skills and activities — a summer project they launched that turned into a national initiative. Courtesy Shaylyn Romney Garrett My husband, James, and I had been married for a little over a year. We were on track to create careers as academics — he in psychology, me sociology, anthropology. We love to study the world, but we also wanted to be...
We Can Do It! Again!
The U.S. is profoundly polarized — politically, culturally, socially, and economically. That was true during the Gilded Age, too. Halfway between then and now, John F. Kennedy exhorted his fellow Americans, “Ask not what your country can do for you — but what you can do for your country.” So what happened? And how do we turn things around? From a conversation with Shaylyn Romney Garrett We Can Do It! image courtesy the National Museum of American History In The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again, Robert Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett offer...
Peace Corps Safety and Security: Looking at a Decade of Legislation for Change
Progress, failures, and what’s on the horizon: a conversation convened for Peace Corps Connect 2021 Illustration by Anna + Elena = Balbusso On September 26, 2011, as the Peace Corps community marked 50 years of Volunteers serving in communities around the world, the U.S. Senate passed the Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act, which was signed into law later that year. Three years ago, Congress completed work on the Sam Farr and Nick Castle Peace Corps Reform Act. These two pieces of legislation were designed to bring about improvements and reforms pertaining to the health, safety, and security of Volunteers. What...
Learning History, Not Hate
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Leading in a Time of Adversity. A conversation convened as Part of Peace Corps Connect 2021. Image by Shutterstock Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are currently the fastest-growing racial or ethnic group in the U.S., but the story of the U.S. AAPI population dates back decades — and is often overlooked. As the community faces an increase in anti-Asian hate crimes and the widening income gap between the wealthiest and poorest, their role in politics and social justice is increasingly important. The AAPI story is also complex — 22 million Asian Americans...
Unprecedented Anniversary: A Conversation with Acting Director of the Peace Corps Carol Spahn
No Volunteers in the field. Battling COVID-19 — and the global rollout of virtual volunteering. Remarks and Q&A with Acting Director of the Peace Corps Carol Spahn as part of Peace Corps Connect 2021. Pictured: In Morocco, partners and volunteer participants team up as part of the Virtual Service Pilot — which has fostered collaboration on projects around the world since October 2020. Photo courtesy Peace Corps Morocco. Carol Spahn has served as acting director of the Peace Corps since January 2021. She previously served as a Volunteer in Romania 1994–96 and later as country director for Malawi and...
Honoring Those Who Have Served
A wreath-laying ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery on September 22, 2021 Photography by Eli Wittum Pictured: Honoring a legacy: Three Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who served in Colombia. From left, they are Museum of the Peace Corps Experience co-founder Patricia Wand (1963–65), former Congressman Sam Farr (1964–66), and journalist Maureen Orth (1964–66). On the afternoon of September 22, Northern Virginia Returned Peace Corps Volunteers hosted a wreath-laying ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. It was an in-person event paying tribute to the idea and ideals of the...
Mark the Moment: September 22, 1961 — the Day that John F. Kennedy Signed the Peace Corps Act
When President John F. Kennedy signed the Peace Corps Act into law, it permanently established the Peace Corps as an independent agency. But forging the legislation and getting it through Congress didn’t happen on their own. We take a look at those beginnings and share some stories few have heard. And we look ahead to what the Peace Corps must become. A conversation with Bill Josephson, Bill Moyers, Joe Kennedy III, and Marieme Foote The legislation that established the Peace Corps on a permanent basis, the Peace Corps Act, was signed by President John F. Kennedy in an...