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WorldView | Peace Corps Is Back

Winter 2023

 

The arrival of a new year also began a new era. As Volunteers return to service around the world, the first Volunteers in Viet Nam were part of a swearing-in ceremony in Ha Noi to close out 2022. And in January, Carol Spahn was sworn in as the new Peace Corps Director.

 


Peace Corps Volunteers Begin Service in Viet Nam

The end of the year began a new era — with a swearing-in ceremony in Ha Noi with Director Carol Spahn.

By Steven Boyd Saum


 

 

Volunteers Have Returned to Service in Some Four Dozen Countries

Peace Corps Is Back

By Steven Boyd Saum

 

 

Carol Spahn Sworn in as Peace Corps Director

She was unanimously confirmed by the Senate in December and in January officially sworn into office.

By Steven Boyd Saum

 

 

 


ANNOTATION

Peace Corps Is Back

Here’s where Volunteers returned to service in 2022–23 and where they have been invited to return.

Annotation by Pamela Fogg and Steven Boyd Saum

 


The Peace Corps Reauthorization Act: Why It Didn’t Pass in 2022 — and Why That Matters

 

The Future that Almost Was

The Peace Corps Reauthorization Act was the most sweeping legislation in a generation. It passed the House and was on the verge of success in the Senate when the clock ran out. Here’s why that matters.

By Jonathan Pearson, Joel Rubin, and Steven Boyd Saum

 

 


Posting Peace

 

Peace Corps Posters 1961–2022

This exhibition by ArtReach Gallery and the Museum of the Peace Corps Experience does more than trace marketing materials for the agency. In images and words, it explores how we think about and talk about the idea of peace itself. And how we make it.

Introduction by W. Sheldon Hurst

 


News and Updates

 

President’s Letter: Helping the Peace Corps Be Its Best

As we celebrate Volunteers returning to service in dozens of countries, we pay tribute to a leader here at NPCA who made a difference at a critical time for the Peace Corps community.

By Dan Baker

 

 

Be Good, Be Kind, and Be Lucky | From the Editor

Parting advice from a writer and friend

By Steven Boyd Saum

 

 

 

Coming Together in a Time of Crisis

The 2022 Loret Miller Ruppe Award for Outstanding Community Service honors three groups that have worked together to support the people of Ukraine.

 

 

 

Women of Peace Corps Legacy Honor Jaynice Del Rosario and Theresa P. Castillo 

Meet the winners of the Kate Raftery Emerging Leader Award and the Deborah Harding Women of Achievement Award.

 

 

A New Fellowship for Global Peacebuilders

A scholarship named in honor of NPCA President Emeritus Chic Dambach.

By Steven Boyd Saum

 

 

 

Marking a Place in History

Many of the first Volunteers began training on a campus in Brattleboro, Vermont, which is home to the School for International Training. Now there’s a marker honoring that legacy.

 

 

 

IRAN: Protests, Repression, and Hope

From an essay by the editor of the Peace Corps Iran Association Advocacy Bulletin

By Paul Barker

 

 


 

 

Mapping a Life

A Life Unimagined: The Rewards of Mission-Driven Service in the Peace Corps and Beyond | By Aaron S. Williams

Aaron Williams went from a childhood on Chicago’s segregated South Side to leading the Peace Corps. A review of and excerpt from his memoir.

 

 

Travels and Ghosts

The 2022 Peace Corps Writers Awards: the people’s writer, love and marriage spats in Kazakhstan, mountain gorillas in Rwanda, a C-section by flashlight in Paraguay, and an epic journey by bicycle.

By John Coyne, Marnie Mueller, Clifford Garstang, and Steven Boyd Saum

 

 

An Accidental Stumble

Peace Corps Writer of the Year Award: Tom Bissell

By Steven Boyd Saum

 

 

 


People and Ideas

 

Leading USAID in West Africa

Jo Lesser-Oltheten is sworn in by USAID Administrator Samantha Power, who says, “In Jo, we have both a regional expert and an inspiring leader.”

By NPCA Staff

 

 

Reporting on Ukraine

Sabra Ayres is chief correspondent for the Associated Press in Ukraine. And Christopher Miller has moved from Politico to the Financial Times.

 

 

 


In Memoriam

 

Painting with Her Own Paint

A Remembrance of Patricia Cloherty

By Steven Boyd Saum

 

 

 

Care and a Moral Compass: Remembering Mary Broude

She was the epitome of a global citizen.

By NPCA Staff

 

 

 

From Wall Street to Guinea: Remembering Harris Bostic II

In San Francisco, he went on to support the work with hundreds of nonprofit organizations.

By Steven Boyd Saum

 

 

 

A Lifetime Journey Together: Stephen Reid and Djseswende Pasto Reid

From Senegal to Burkina Faso to New Hampshire

 

 

 

Creating Educational Opportunities in Kenya: Remembering Brad Broder

He sought to ensure that school fees wouldn’t be a barrier to youth.

 

 

 


Masthead

Meet the team behind the digital and print versions of WorldView.

 

 

 

 

 

Read WorldView in Print Layout on Flickread


 

Get the print edition of WorldView

 

WorldView magazine brings you stories from and about the greater Peace Corps community, with connections to the wider world. We feature news, profiles, commentary and analysis, politics, arts, and ideas with a global perspective. We publish quarterly in print, with digital features throughout the year.

 

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Receive the print edition by joining National Peace Corps Association at any level, including with a free membership. SIGN UP. 

You can also make a gift to ensure we can send the print edition of the magazine to everyone who wants to receive it.

Current edition: Winter 2023

Previous editions of WorldView digital: 

Spring-Summer 2022 | 2022 Books Edition (April 2022) | Fall 2021 Special 60th Anniversary EditionSummer 2021 | Spring 2021 Winter 2021 Fall 2020 | Summer 2020 | Spring 2020 

More previous editions are available on the WorldView app. Print copies may be available as well upon request. Write us and ask.

 

Submission Guidelines


We welcome pitches and, on rare occasions, completed pieces. What are we looking for? Stories that speak to the Peace Corps community. That might be focused on work connected to Peace Corps, returned Volunteers, communities and countries where Volunteers have served, connections to experiences and work in the U.S. and globally. We’re interested in ideas and impact and stories that connect with readers on a human level.


See Guidelines

 

About the Editor


Steven Boyd Saum is editor of WorldView. For more than two decades he has edited award-winning magazines in the San Francisco Bay Area. His journalism, essays, and fiction have appeared in OrionThe BelieverCreative NonfictionThe Kenyon ReviewChristian Science Monitor, on KQED FM, and in other magazines and newspapers in the U.S. and internationally. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine, where he also directed the Fulbright program and hosted a radio show. Send a letter to the editor: worldview@peacecorpsconnect.org.

 

 

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Sign up to receive WorldView digital with our app, including searchable archives and digital exclusives.

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Questions? Email us.

A Unique Audience

Advertisers: Reach the Peace Corps community throughout the United States — and around the world. Find out more about how to advertise with us:

Download our 2023 Media Kit

The quarterly print edition of the award-winning WorldView
magazine reaches more than 70,000 readers. The magazine is available free of charge to more than 7,000 Peace Corps Volunteers evacuated in 2020 — and to 
thousands more Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and staff. They’re part of a committed and dynamic community of nearly a quarter million. 

 

Learn more.

 

What Our Readers Are Saying

“I would like to thank you for all of the amazing work you put into WorldView magazine. Reading it gives me a great feeling of solidarity with other Volunteers and RPCVs around the world and always serves to remind me that I’m part of something very special, and something that is much bigger than I am.”

Anna Waterfield (Tanzania 2012–14)

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“I have read WorldView for years now and it was FABULOUS to get at post. It’s important to know someone, somewhere out there is doing what you are doing, with a twist, and that’s what keeps Volunteers serving and communities asking for more … this publication really does make a difference.”

Rachael Miller (Benin 2006–08)


Contributor guidelines here.