Global Reentry: Live [Virtual] Career Office Hours Twice a Month
Mini-coaching dialogues on résumé critiques, mock interviews, job search strategy, and more Photo courtesy Envato By NPCA Staff Wondering how to build the career you desire or execute an effective job search? National Peace Corps Association’s Global Reentry Program has launched twice-monthly Live [Virtual] Career Office Hours to provide assistance for small groups and individuals via mini-coaching dialogues on résumé critiques, mock interviews, job search strategy, and more. Hosted by Global Reentry Career Specialist Jodi Hammer (Ecuador 1994–97), each session explores a different career topic, answers questions, and offers resources. Find upcoming sessions in January 2022 and beyond: peacecorpsconnect.org/events
Peace Corps Days of Advocacy 2022: In Person?
National Peace Corps Association hopes to host in-person meetings as part of Capitol Hill Advocacy Day on March 3, 2022. This is an opportunity to meet with members of Congress and staff. The last in-person meetings were in March 2020, just days before the Capitol shut down. Health and safety concerns mean we can’t yet confirm in-person meetings in 2022, but NPCA hopes to announce definitive plans in January. Check back with the NPCA website for updates — or head to our homepage and scroll down to sign up for the NPCA Newsletter.
Two Remembrances: F. Kingston Berlew and Murray Frank
Kindred spirits who they helped shape the early years of the Peace Corps By Bill Josephson Pictured: Dr. Mahmud Hussain, vice chancellor of Dacca University — one of the host institutions for Peace Corps Volunteers serving in East Pakistan since October 1961 — chats with Peace Corps Representative to Pakistan F. Kingston Berlew of Washington, DC. Photo courtesy Peace Corps F. Kingston Berlew, a distinguished lawyer, walked into my Peace Corps General Counsel’s office unannounced in 1961 and said that he wanted to join the Peace Corps. He had a wife and children; service as a Volunteer was out. King...
Peace Corps Releases Sexual Assault Advisory Council Report — Sweeping in Scope, with 26 Specific Recommendations
The council reviewed recommendations from the past five years. And they have staked out the need to create tools, systems, processes, and positions. It’s an outline for work ahead and lays out timetables for actions that need to be taken. By Rachel Edwards and Jonathan Pearson On November 10 the Peace Corps agency released a report prepared by the Peace Corps’ Sexual Assault Advisory Council. Half a year in the making, the report tackles an issue that made headlines this past spring and caught the attention of members of Congress. The report was requested by Peace Corps Acting Director Carol...
News Update July 28: House of Representatives Approves Fiscal Year 2022 Peace Corps Funding
On July 28 the House of Representatives approved a $430.5 million Peace Corps budget for 2022 — an increase of 5 percent. It points to the first meaningful increase in funding in six years. By Jonathan Pearson (UPDATE – July 28, 2021, 9:00 PM Eastern): On a mostly party-line vote, the House of Representatives approved a Fiscal Year 2022 spending package for the Department of State and other foreign operations. Included in the $62.2 billion State/Foreign Operations bill is a $20 million funding increase for the Peace Corps — nearly 5 percent. The Senate has not yet taken up its version of a State/Foreign Operations...
Trailblazer in Film
A portrait of Judy Irola By Jordana Comiter “You can be creative, and you can be managerial and spirited,” Judy Irola said of her work as a cinematographer. Photo by Douglas Kirkland Judy Irola made history as a producer, director, cinematographer, and educator—and only the third female member of the American Society of Cinematographers. Her first feature, “Northern Lights,” won the Camera d’Or prize at Cannes in 1979. At Sundance her film “An Ambush of Ghosts” won the Cinematography Award, Dramatic Competition. The Peace Corps took her to Niger in 1966. “We came home to a different world in 1968,” Irola...
Meet the 2020 Winners of the Franklin H. Williams Award
Honoring six Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who have served around the world — and a leader who has worked to close the racial and wealth gaps in the Chicago area. By NPCA Staff On December 15 the Peace Corps recognized leaders in the Peace Corps community — and a civic leader with a shared commitment to Peace Corps values — with the Franklin H. Williams Award. The award honors ethnically diverse Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who have demonstrated a commitment to civic engagement, service, diversity, inclusion, world peace, and to the Peace Corps’ Third Goal — to strengthen Americans’ understanding of the world and...
Peace Corps Connect to the Future: A vision of unparalleled scope for an unprecedented time
After all Peace Corps Volunteers were withdrawn from around the world in March 2020, an unprecedented community-driven effort has charted a course for how to reimagine, reshape, and retool the Peace Corps for a changed world. By Steven Boyd Saum Washington, D.C. (November 13, 2020) — Amid a time of unprecedented crisis for the Peace Corps and our nation as a whole, the Peace Corps community has come together to chart a way forward: with specific, actionable steps that will help reimagine and retool the Peace Corps for a changed world. Those steps are outlined in “Peace Corps Connect to...
From the Editor: This Time
Peace Corps teaches us a new way to think about time. Pandemic does, too. So what do we do with this? By Steven Boyd Saum ACROSS THE DECADES and countries and communities where tens of thousands of Peace Corps Volunteers have served, there are a few things we share. One: a new grasp of time. Be it seasons or how we count the days, a revised sense of punctuality or the value of hours in terms of money or daylight, be it devoted to sleep or preparing a meal or hiking to the well, be it in the presence of friends or alone with this self you are...
African Americans and the Future of the Peace Corps
Recruitment, support — and what next? It’s a conversation we’ve had again and again. Here are some ideas, insights, and hard truths. ON SEPTEMBER 15, 2020, THE CONSTITUENCY FOR AFRICA convened a group of past, present, and future Peace Corps leaders for the annual Ronald H. Brown African Affairs series. It’s a timely and needed conversation — with all Peace Corps Volunteers evacuated from around the world because of COVID-19, and as our nation grapples with pandemics of coronavirus and systemic racism. The conversation was moderated by educational consultant Eldridge “Skip” Gilbert, who served as a Volunteer in Sierra Leone (1967–69). Edited...