WorldView Magazine: RPCV Stories
Peter Pan Syndrome
As young idealists, we penetrated local society and understood day-to-day life in ways that neither Foreign Service diplomats nor graduates with mere doctorates come close to. Now that we have “moved on” and “grown up,” do we abandon our proclivity for the humble citizenry in favor of the élites who are now our counterparts? Or, despite our fancier clothes and higher credentials, can we still remain true to our camaraderie with “the people”?
Carrying the Torch of Liberty
In the early 1960s, during the Pan American Games, a major international sporting event held every four years, my father was selected to carry the Torch of Liberty, an honor tied to unity, service, and shared identity.
Wave of Inspiration
A decision to join Peace Corps begins with one person simply telling another what service meant to them. A former Volunteer speaks to an intern. A parent shares old photographs with a child. A mentor tells stories over coffee. One life quietly expands the limits of what another person imagines is possible.
The Stream: Spring/Summer 2026 – RPCV Book Reviews
RPCV BOOK REVIEWS FEATURED REVIEW We Called It a War by Sargent Shriver Shriver's posthumous memoir—written in 1960 but only recently rediscovered in the archives of the Shriver Peace Institute and edited for contemporary readers—offers a detailed account of the 1964–68 War on Poverty. The narrative illuminates Shriver's political acumen, details with equanimity his relationships with allies, adversaries, and leading figures of this time—most notably LBJ—and displays the strong spiritual fidelity with which he appears to have approached everything. Among the memorable anecdotes of his efforts to make a meaningful impact on poverty in the U.S. is one in which...
Notable
How to Start a Tribal Art Museum Justin D. Bibee, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco from 2014 to 2016, founded the Museum of Fine Tribal Art, a Rhode Island–based nonprofit established in 2025. The museum focuses on collecting, preserving, and sharing tribal art from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. The museum began as Bibee's personal collection and has since developed into a public initiative. It includes masks, textiles, sculptures, jewelry, and ceremonial objects representing a wide range of cultural traditions. The collection could be valued at up to $6 million, based on preliminary research. Without a permanent exhibition...
The Jeep Driver’s Son
A Peace Corps Volunteer’s son became the first Afghan to summit Everest and Denali—while helping build a ski culture in war-torn Afghanistan.
The Advocate
When I graduated from college, I briefly considered joining Peace Corps. After some reflection, my decision was clear: “Spend two years living remotely in a foreign country? Absolutely not!” I could never have imagined that seven years later I would be on a tiny island in the Federated States of Micronesia starting service. Similarly, in 2003, when I was hired to help rebuild the advocacy program at the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA), it would have been hard for me to foresee that I’d close out my career running NPCA’s advocacy efforts more than twenty years later, in 2026, having...
When Caucasian Doesn’t Mean White
What a group of Georgian teenagers taught a Detroit-raised Volunteer about race, hierarchy, and the long shadow of Russian domination.
Frostbound and Down
The desire to run a full 26.2-mile marathon in one of the world’s most inhospitable environments in existence isn’t without its fair share of cocked eyebrows and earnest inquiries into one’s mental health.
Reading Room: RPCV Book Clubs
For many, book clubs have become a doorway back to service, a place where returned Volunteers can feel the same spark of curiosity that once led them across oceans.
