FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, January 23, 2002
Peace Corps Touts Ongoing Activities to Educate Americans
Washington, D.C., January 23, 2002—Peace Corps has announced a series of events and activities to highlight the important volunteer work undertaken by returned Peace Corps volunteers following their years of service. This work underscores the important “third goal” of Peace Corps’ mission: aimed to “strengthen America’s understanding about the world and its peoples
Peace Corps has developed a social studies resource designed to help U.S. students better understand the world, themselves and others. Titled Insights from the Field: Understanding Geography, Culture and Service, the guide is unique, using primary source materials based on the Peace Corps volunteer experience. Selected lessons have been designated by the Understanding by Design framework, with support from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, as having achieved “Gold Cup” standards, a standard met by only 12 of approximately 14,000 curriculum units submitted for judging.
Content for Insights from the Field includes first-hand accounts of Peace Corps volunteers\' lives and their work. The entire Insights from the Field curriculum is available on the Peace Corps Web site and can be downloaded for classroom use. Additional information about Insights from the Field can be found at www.peacecorps.gov/wws/guides/insights.
Peace Corps Volunteer Safety/Security staff and Language/Cross-Cultural staff will be conducting a training session, “Cross-Cultural Dimensions of Safety and Security,” for 200 physicians, nurses, and paramedics who are members of the National Disaster Medical Services (NDMS) deployed on standby in Salt Lake City for the 2002 Olympics. The one-day sessions will be conducted between February 9 and 23, 2002.
The NDMS is a program of the Public Health Service of the Department of Health and Human Services. The 5,000 physicians, nurses, and paramedics are registered to be on hand to respond to domestic disasters and are organized into 50 teams around the country.
Peace Corps’ Paul D. Coverdell World Wise Schools program will present a workshop at Teachers College Columbia University’s “Teach-In: For Teaching and Learning in a New Global Environment,” on January 26 in New York, N.Y. Aimed to address a collective response to the events of September 11, the teach-in will speak to civil liberties, the role of women in Islamic societies and other crucial topics. Educators, political leaders, scholars, principals, superintendents and experts on teaching and learning are expected to attend. Paul D. Coverdell World Wise Schools staff will be presenting two 90-minute workshops with an emphasis on Peace Corps expertise in cross-cultural training and resources available from returned Peace Corps volunteers.
Utah State University is hosting a seminar series in the fall of 2002 that will feature speakers from government agencies, conservation groups, academia and nonprofit groups to discuss issues that affect world natural resources. The seminar will feature Jonathan Landeck, an environmental and agricultural specialist from Peace Corps’ Africa region, who will address issues affecting African natural resources and the successful policy and preservation efforts supported by Peace Corps programs.
Peace Corps will take part in Principia College’s Public Affairs Conference as part of their spring topic on water resources. Several aspects will be addressed during the discussions April 11-13, 2002, including life, war and international conflict, livelihood and the environment. Peace Corps representatives will participate in panels for sessions titled “What Can I Do And How Can I Make a Difference,” and “What Do We Do About the Growing Tension Over International Rivers?” The conference is a forumWhat Do We Do About the Growing Tension Over International Rivers?” The conference is a forum created by and for students to discuss relevant issues of the day such as population, peace and diplomacy. Speakers have included Nobel Laureate Enrico Fermi, President Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, Nobel Laureate Jody Williams and Ralph Nader. Additional information about water in Africa can be found at
Peace Corps participation in all of these related activities will help thousands of Americans understand the world, themselves and others better by passing along the knowledge gained by Peace Corps volunteers during their years of service with peoples and cultures all over the world.
More than 165,000 volunteers have served in 135 countries since the Peace Corps was established in 1961. Today, approximately 7,000 volunteers serve in programs to address poverty reduction, health and HIV/AIDS, the environment, education, agriculture and information tec
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