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Peace Corps Day Photo courtesy of Cindy Diouf
Text from the Peace Corps website
Each year on March 1, this tradition of service is celebrated as Peace Corps Day. Thousands of returned Peace Corps Volunteers share the knowledge and insights gained from their overseas experiences with their communities in the United States. As all Volunteers know, part of the Peace Corps' mission is to educate Americans back home about the people with whom they lived and worked.
Now more than ever, Americans need to know more about the people, culture, and customs of your host country. By telling your stories in places like classrooms, libraries, places of worship, community centers, and the workplace, you are strengthening the ability of Americans to better understand the world, themselves, and others.
Peace Corps Day webpage Register online to participate (& get freebies to share with kids) Read about past experiences Cindy Diouf's powerpoint file for her presentation on Guinea (2MB, big download)
Mail Peace Corps Day Coordinator Domestic Programs, Second Floor 1111 20th Street NW Washington, DC 20526
Email pcday@peacecorps.gov
Cindy Diouf is our resident expert on Peace Corps Day presentations. If you are interested in doing something for PC Day and need advice, contact her at: cidiouf@email.msn.com. Here is her advice on PC Day:
What do do for Peace Corps Day?
I've done something for Peace Corps Day the last 3 years. Some ideas include making some of the recipes on the FOG site. High school kids are always hungry and young children are curious enough to try anything. In many of the presentations I've done, I have brought along music and taught them some Mbalax, the Senegalese national dance. They usually just laugh, but its a lot of fun!
If you're having trouble coming up with a presentation, send me an email. I'd love to discuss your ideas for Peace Corps Day 2002.
Presentation in PowerPoint
Powerpoint presentation (2 MB - huge) Text version of Powerpoint presentation
Above are links for the Powerpoint presentation that I have used for the last 3 years. It is geared towards 2nd-4th year French classrooms (high school). Most French teachers are quite receptive to having speakers come in with ANY knowledge of Francophone Afrique. One will need a Proxima Projector for this particular presentation that any Guinea vols could use for Peace Corps Day. It's a really simple project that easily could be modified. One could add/ remove slides, insert their own pictures, translate into English, whatever.
I usually start with the PowerPoint, give history of Peace Corps and countries served, show props (realia, ect) from Guinea, answer questions, etc. I try to get freebies from the regional recruiter in Minneapolis. That is getting harder to do. Last year, headquarters sent out really cute Peace Corps trading cards. I used these and other freebies at the end of the presentation to reward students who could answer questions correctly about PC. Examples include, "Who founded Peace Corps? In what year? What countries are served? What is the Peace Corps mission (broken into 3 components for 3 prizes)?", etc. I have visited at least 12 schools in the past few years and it usually goes over well. Since the file is so huge and old (I made it in 98), I don't know how usable this particular presentation will be, but it will give some ideas, I hope.
How do I find/ contact a teacher about Peace Corps Day???
The following are suggestions that I sent to Stephanie on how to locate and make contact with a teacher in your area. If any of this is confusing, or if you simply have questions, contact me at: cidiouf@msn.com or cdiouf@esc.cr.k12.ia.us
As far as finding a teacher is concerned, do NOT be shy. I would call up the school closest to where you live (provided that you don't have friends or relatives teaching near you), introduce yourself, tell them about Peace Corps Day and your willingness to come into the school for a presentation. Ask to speak with Social Studies or French teachers (they'll be teaching of course but you can get their voice mail).
When talking to the teacher or secretary taking a message for the teacher, I would focus on the ever-important theme of cultural understanding and cross-cultural experiences. If the office is unwilling to give out names or is at all uncooperative, find the websites for schools located near you.
For example: Put into your search engine the name of a school located near your place of work, university, etc. Once you find the particular school's home page, look under "Academics", "Subjects" or "Departments". Find the Foreign Language, Social Studies, really any department. If the chairperson is listed, contact him or her first. Either the names will have direct links to the teacher's email address or you can write down the name of a few teachers and then look up their addresses under the link, "Faculty", "Staff" or, "Teachers".
You can send individual emails to teachers in the various departments. Copy and paste an email (explaining what you want to do) to a couple of teachers a week until you find an interested faculty member. I hope this doesn't create too much interest or demand. I really think that this will work. Almost all schools have websites with teacher email addresses listed (well, at least in Iowa). Bonne Chance!
Take care et bonne annee,
Cindy Kankalabe 96-98
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