January 21, 2005: Headlines: Directors - Celeste: Yale Daily News: Former Peace Corps Director Richard Celeste shares insight, experiences at Saybrook tea
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January 21, 2005: Headlines: Directors - Celeste: Yale Daily News: Former Peace Corps Director Richard Celeste shares insight, experiences at Saybrook tea
Former Peace Corps Director Richard Celeste shares insight, experiences at Saybrook tea
Former Peace Corps Director Richard Celeste shares insight, experiences at Saybrook tea
Celeste '59 shares insight, experiences at Saybrook tea
Former governor advises community service, leadership
BY XUAN GUI
Contributing Reporter
Despite his demanding involvement with both domestic and foreign politics, former Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste '59 stressed the importance of personal contentment and balance between one's professional and personal lives at a Saybrook College Master's Tea on Thursday.
"I think serendipity is really important in life," Celeste told about 50 students who gathered at the tea just hours after President Bush's inauguration ceremony.
Celeste, the current president of Colorado College, has a rich history in politics and foreign affairs, having served as the director of the Peace Corps under President Carter and as ambassador to India during President Clinton's term. With humor and graciousness, Celeste encouraged students to become involved in community service, leadership and cultural activities.
Involvement with organizations like the Peace Corps, Celeste said, not only enables people to contribute to society in a significant way but also allows them to see the world in a different light.
"When you are overseas for an extended period of time, you see your country in a different perspective and you know more about yourself," Celeste said.
To illustrate this point, Celeste related a story about a woman who was legally blind and decided to volunteer for a gardening project in Senegal. At the end of her experience, she said that she had gained "new eyes," as she came to see the world and herself differently, Celeste said.
After leading the Peace Corps, Celeste served for two terms as a Democratic governor of Ohio. In order to really make a difference, he said, leaders must have a good team, build a strong political base and have clear goals.
"You recruit talented people, you build political constituency and you have a clear vision of what you want to achieve," Celeste said. "It was great fun, but you cannot do it alone."
After his governorship, Celeste stayed in Ohio managing an economic development firm until 1997, when he began serving as U.S. ambassador to India. He drew on his international experience in the Peace Corps and as an ambassador to advise students on how to approach intercultural relations. When one student asked how to overcome cultural barriers, Celeste said one does not "overcome" cultural barriers, but rather "appreciates" other cultures.
"You don't really overcome cultural boundaries," Celeste said. "Culture is well-defined. You learn to respect and enjoy what is on the other side of the boundary."
Celeste said students should get involved in activities that genuinely interest and excite them.
"Listen to that drumbeat that's yours," Celeste said.
Students at the Tea said they were impressed with Celeste's broad range of experiences, insight into life -- and his humor.
"Celeste was basically my idol," Haley Edwards '05 said. "He's very inspirational, very down to earth and very funny."
Edwards is a columnist for the News.
Saybrook Master Mary Miller said Celeste was successful in promoting the value of a well-balanced psyche and the ability to take life as it comes.
"I loved his emphasis on serendipity and staying open to how things can just happen in life, and thus there's an interest in avoiding life as a script," Miller said.
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When this story was posted in January 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| Ask Not As our country prepares for the inauguration of a President, we remember one of the greatest speeches of the 20th century and how his words inspired us. "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." |
| Latest: RPCVs and Peace Corps provide aid Peace Corps made an appeal last week to all Thailand RPCV's to consider serving again through the Crisis Corps and more than 30 RPCVs have responded so far. RPCVs: Read what an RPCV-led NGO is doing about the crisis an how one RPCV is headed for Sri Lanka to help a nation he grew to love. Question: Is Crisis Corps going to send RPCVs to India, Indonesia and nine other countries that need help? |
| The World's Broken Promise to our Children Former Director Carol Bellamy, now head of Unicef, says that the appalling conditions endured today by half the world's children speak to a broken promise. Too many governments are doing worse than neglecting children -- they are making deliberate, informed choices that hurt children. Read her op-ed and Unicef's report on the State of the World's Children 2005. |
| Our debt to Bill Moyers Former Peace Corps Deputy Director Bill Moyers leaves PBS next week to begin writing his memoir of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Read what Moyers says about journalism under fire, the value of a free press, and the yearning for democracy. "We have got to nurture the spirit of independent journalism in this country," he warns, "or we'll not save capitalism from its own excesses, and we'll not save democracy from its own inertia." |
| Is Gaddi Leaving? Rumors are swirling that Peace Corps Director Vasquez may be leaving the administration. We think Director Vasquez has been doing a good job and if he decides to stay to the end of the administration, he could possibly have the same sort of impact as a Loret Ruppe Miller. If Vasquez has decided to leave, then Bob Taft, Peter McPherson, Chris Shays, or Jody Olsen would be good candidates to run the agency. Latest: For the record, Peace Corps has no comment on the rumors. |
| The Birth of the Peace Corps UMBC's Shriver Center and the Maryland Returned Volunteers hosted Scott Stossel, biographer of Sargent Shriver, who spoke on the Birth of the Peace Corps. This is the second annual Peace Corps History series - last year's speaker was Peace Corps Director Jack Vaughn. |
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Story Source: Yale Daily News
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