Tbilisi, Georgia, June 19, 2001 – On June 20th, U.S. Ambassador Kenneth S. Yalowitz will preside over the swearing in ceremony for the first group of U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers in Georgia. The Peace Corps Trainees arrived in Georgia on May 1, 2001 and began an intensive eight-week Community Based Training program covering Georgian language, cross-cultural studies, technical education, and health and safety. This ceremony marks the end of the training program and the trainees’ formal induction into the Peace Corps as Volunteers.

The Peace Corps Volunteers will be assigned to schools and communities across Georgia where they will teach English in secondary schools. Volunteers will team-teach with their Georgian counterparts, design and deliver student-centered lessons and ensure that through English lessons, Georgian students develop and strengthen new learning and adaptation techniques, critical thinking and decision-making skills.

The Peace Corps is a United States Government agency founded by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to promote world peace and friendship. While this first group of Volunteers in Georgia contains 23 men and women, the Peace Corps intends to build up to approximately 70 Volunteers countrywide within the next three years.