2006.03.05: March 5, 2006: Headlines: Awards: Directors - Vasquez: 45th Anniversary: Boston Globe: Peace Corps volunteers honored at JFK Library

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Library: Peace Corps: Awards : Peace Corps Awards: 2006.03.05: March 5, 2006: Headlines: Awards: Directors - Vasquez: 45th Anniversary: Boston Globe: Peace Corps volunteers honored at JFK Library

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-25-123.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.25.123) on Sunday, March 05, 2006 - 8:23 pm: Edit Post

Peace Corps Leaders Honored with Kennedy Service Awards

Peace Corps Leaders Honored with Kennedy Service Awards

Peace Corps volunteers Scott Overdyke and Barbara Schlieper, Peace Corps staff members William Bull and Munkhjin Tsogt, and returned Peace Corps volunteers Tony Gasbarro and Roland Foulkes were presented the Kennedy Service Awards.

Peace Corps Leaders Honored with Kennedy Service Awards

Outstanding Peace Corps Leaders Honored with Kennedy Service Awards

BOSTON, March 4, 2006 – In celebration of the Peace Corps' 45th anniversary, Peace Corps Director Gaddi H. Vasquez has presented the first-ever John F. Kennedy Service Awards to six recipients who have demonstrated exemplary service and leadership in fulfilling the Peace Corps' mission.

Established in honor of 45 years of Peace Corps service to the global community, the awards are to be given every five years to six notable individuals: two current volunteers, two returned volunteers, and two Peace Corps staff members who help further the agency's goals and mission through their commitment to world peace and friendship.

"The John F. Kennedy Service Awards is an opportunity to recognize a few of the many people who go beyond the call of duty for the Peace Corps, both in the United States and in countries where Peace Corps serves. I know their contributions will leave a lasting impression in the hearts and minds of those whose lives they have touched, and I look forward to seeing the legacy of their accomplishments well into the future," Director Vasquez said.

Peace Corps volunteers Scott Overdyke and Barbara Schlieper, Peace Corps staff members William Bull and Munkhjin Tsogt, and returned Peace Corps volunteers Tony Gasbarro and Roland Foulkes were presented the Kennedy Service Awards.

The two recipients in the "Currently Serving Volunteers" category demonstrated impact, sustainability and creativity in implementing their projects. The two recipients in the "Returned Volunteers" category demonstrated continued domestic or international service in their communities while assisting with Peace Corps sponsored programs or projects. Finally, the two recipients in the "Peace Corps Staff" category demonstrated inspiration, leadership, and above-and-beyond support to volunteers in the field.

Scott Overdyke
Peace Corps volunteer Scott Overdyke is playing an integral role defining, organizing, and implementing an indigenous coffee program in one of the most impoverished communities of Panama. Scott has brought hope to those in his community by linking traditionally disenfranchised coffee farmers with local and national coffee associations and buyers. The small coffee producers he supports are gradually adopting improved farming techniques and business skills while gaining the confidence and ability to enter the growing high-quality specialty coffee market in Panama. Through it all, Scott has been embraced by the people of his community as he works in both Spanish and Ngabere languages. Along with his coffee work, he has participated in several workshops promoting improved health practices and is currently facilitating a latrine project in coordination with various Panamanian agencies. Scott's quiet confidence, leadership, and strength of character have enabled him to make a real difference in his service. Scott is from Houston, Texas and has a bachelor's degree in economics and political science from Vanderbilt University.

Barbara Schlieper
Barbara Schlieper has had a genuine impact on the development of the Teaching English as a Foreign Language project for Peace Corps/Ukraine. She has worked as a teacher trainer in one of Ukraine's teacher training institutes, where she has facilitated and presented seminars, workshops, and conferences to hundreds of regional English teachers who otherwise may not have had exposure to contemporary teaching methods or a native English speaker. Barbara also created the Institute Resource Center through a Partnership Program grant and helped the center acquire hundreds of textbooks and resource materials. Close to 250 teachers have participated in her teaching recertification courses, and she took the lead in gathering her seminar materials into a manual for secondary school teachers to enable her to reach even more teachers. Barbara embraces the best features of Peace Corps volunteerism-cheerful optimism, altruism, deep respect for a different culture, and hard work all aimed at serving people fully and conscientiously. Barbara is from Vashon, Wash., and has a degree from Stanford University.

William Bull
Madagascar Country Director William “Bill” Bull has devoted nearly 20 years to Peace Corps service, often through difficult times and at challenging posts. His service began as a volunteer in Sierra Leone from 1985 to 1989, where he worked with farmers to increase their rice production four-fold. Bill then went on to help train more than 500 Peace Corps volunteers for service in nearly 20 countries, ranging from Morocco to Senegal and from Dominica to Tunisia. As associate Peace Corps director in Gabon, Bill helped revitalize the rural development program. In Madagascar, Bill provided strong support during a political crisis and ensuing volunteer evacuation. He helped reestablish the program in Madagascar and his strong and caring leadership as country director has led to the post having one of the Peace Corps’ highest extension rates and lowest early termination rates for volunteers. Bill is from Cuttingville, Vt. He has a bachelor’s degree in international development from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania and a master gardener certificate from the University of Vermont.

Munkhjin Tsogt
Peace Corps staff member Munkhjin Tsogt was instrumental in developing Peace Corps/Mongolia's youth development project and currently serves as the program's assistant. A champion for policy change and for children's rights, Munkhjin provides extensive support for not only community and youth development volunteers, but for all volunteers. She has identified potential Mongolian agencies for youth development and continues to provide on-the-job technical and programming support to them. She also provides translation services for volunteers, Peace Corps events, and meetings with government officials, agency counterparts, and supervisors. She trains counterparts and youth development workers on life skills and conducts trainings of trainers for life skills workshops. She also organized a networking fair for volunteers to increase their visibility with development agencies and co-founded the "Safe Migration" educational program, which helps volunteers in all sectors take preventive measures in their communities against the growing problem of human trafficking. She is a citizen of Mongolia.

Tony Gasbarro
Tony Gasbarro served as a Peace Corps volunteer both in the Dominican Republic from 1962 to 1964 and in El Salvador from 1996 to 1998. Upon his return from El Salvador, Tony looked for ways to continue helping Salvadorans and to promote cross-cultural understanding. He has been returning to El Salvador twice each year since 1998 as a board member of Project Salvador, a Denver-based non-profit organization involved in community development in El Salvador. Tony has raised tens of thousands of dollars to provide scholarships for nearly 200 Salvadoran youth so they can attend high school and college. He has recently helped start a vision screening program for children with the help of an Alaska ophthalmologist, a U.S. Lions Club, and a Salvadoran Lions Club. In addition, with Tony’s help the University of Alaska-Fairbanks became part of the Peace Corps' Master's International program in 2004. He subsequently volunteered to be the program's campus coordinator. A tireless promoter of Peace Corps service, Tony was one of the founding members of the Northern Alaska Peace Corps Friends group. He has given more than 300 presentations about the Peace Corps to students from elementary school through the university level, and to service groups and professional organizations. Currently Tony is co-teaching a graduate seminar in international development at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, from which he also has a degree.

Roland Foulkes
From his service as a primary health care volunteer in Ghana from 1982 to 1984 to his work combating HIV/AIDS in the United States to his efforts to bring cross-cultural curricula to the nation's sixth largest school district in Broward County, Fla., Roland has demonstrated both his servant leadership and social entrepreneurship. In Broward County, he created and currently leads the "One Broward" initiative to make real the vision found in our nation's motto "E Pluribus Unum - Out of Many, One People.” Accordingly, this widely accepted initiative led the county – the first in the nation – to introduce World Wise Schools' "Building Bridges: A Peace Corps Guide to Cross-Cultural Understanding" and related materials into its curriculum, empowering students with the tools needed to move "One Broward" from concept to reality. Until December 2005, Roland chaired both the Florida HIV/AIDS Demonstration Grant Advisory Committee and the Broward Community HIV Prevention Planning Partnership. Roland earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in medical anthropology from Cornell University and the University of California at Berkeley, respectively, is a National Science Foundation Scholar and Fulbright Fellow, and won awards for his teaching at Berkeley and the University of Florida. He is a resident of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.






When this story was posted in March 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:


Contact PCOLBulletin BoardRegisterSearch PCOLWhat's New?

Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
Re-envision Peace Corps Date: March 12 2006 No: 814 Re-envision Peace Corps
Slavery was once called "the peculiar institution," but a better candidate for this title may be the Peace Corps. Current geopolitics make this a good time to probe Peace Corps' peculiarity, as prelude to a long overdue reconceptualization of what is arguably the most underused federal entity. An imaginatively reinvented Peace Corps could powerfully promote US interests in a period when perceptions of American motives are increasingly relevant to global realignment.

Read a call to "Re-envision Peace Corps" by Nicholas J. Slabbert and PC Country Director J.R. Bullington. Their study envisions a new role for the Peace Corps in five linked areas: (1) reinventing America's international profile via a new use of soft power; (2) moving from a war-defined, non-technological, reactive theory of peace to a theory of peace as a normal, proactive component of technologically advanced democracy; (3) reappraising Peace Corps as a national strategic asset whose value remains largely untapped; (4) Peace Corps as a model for the technological reinvention of government agencies for the 21st century; (5) redefining civil society as information technology society.

Top Stories and Breaking News PCOL Magazine Peace Corps Library RPCV Directory Sign Up

The Peace Corps Library Date: February 24 2006 No: 798 The Peace Corps Library
The Peace Corps Library is now available online with over 40,000 index entries in 500 categories. Looking for a Returned Volunteer? Check our RPCV Directory. New: Sign up to receive PCOL Magazine, our free Monthly Magazine by email. Like to keep up with Peace Corps news as it happens? Sign up to recieve a daily summary of Peace Corps stories from around the world.

Invitee re-assigned after inflammatory remarks Date: March 12 2006 No: 813 Invitee re-assigned after inflammatory remarks
The Peace Corps has pulled the invitation to Derek Volkart to join the Morocco Training Program and offered him a position in the Pacific instead after officials read an article in which he stated that his decision to join the Peace Corps was in "response to our current fascist government." RPCV Lew Nash says that "If Derek Volkart spoke his mind as freely in Morocco about the Moroccan monarchy it could cause major problems for himself and other Peace Corps volunteers." What do other RPCVs think?

March 1, 1961: Keeping Kennedy's Promise Date: February 27 2006 No: 800 March 1, 1961: Keeping Kennedy's Promise
On March 1, 1961, President John F. Kennedy issues Executive Order #10924, establishing the Peace Corps as a new agency: "Life in the Peace Corps will not be easy. There will be no salary and allowances will be at a level sufficient only to maintain health and meet basic needs. Men and women will be expected to work and live alongside the nationals of the country in which they are stationed--doing the same work, eating the same food, talking the same language. But if the life will not be easy, it will be rich and satisfying. For every young American who participates in the Peace Corps--who works in a foreign land--will know that he or she is sharing in the great common task of bringing to man that decent way of life which is the foundation of freedom and a condition of peace. "

Top Stories: February 2, 2006 Date: February 4 2006 No: 783 Top Stories: February 2, 2006
Al Kamen writes: Rice to redeploy diplomats 20 Jan
Peace Corps mourns the Loss of Volunteer Tessa Horan 1 Feb
RPCV pursues dreams in America's Heartland 1 Feb
Sargent Shriver documentary to be shown in LA 30 Jan
W. Frank Fountain is new board chairman of Africare 27 Jan
Abbey Brown writes about acid attacks in Bangladesh 26 Jan
Christopher Hill Sees Ray of Hope in N.Korea Standoff 26 Jan
Jeffrey Smit writes on one man diplomatic outposts 25 Jan
Joe Blatchford's ACCION and microfinance 24 Jan
James Rupert writes: A calculated risk in Pakistan 23 Jan
Sam Farr rips conservative immigration bill 21 Jan
Americans campaign for PC to return to Sierra Leone 20 Jan
Kinky Friedman supports Gay Marriage 20 Jan
Margaret Krome writes on Women leaders 18 Jan
James Walsh leads bipartisan US delegation to Ireland 17 Jan
Mark Schneider writes on Elections and Beyond in Haiti 16 Jan
Robert Blackwill on a "serious setback" in US-India relations 13 Jan
Kevin Quigley writes on PC and U.S. Image Abroad 13 Jan
Emily Metzloff rides bicycle 3,100 miles from Honduras 9 Jan
Charles Brennick starts operation InterConnection 9 Jan
Lee Fisher tells story of Pablo Morillo 7 Jan
Nancy Wallace writes: Was PC a CIA front after all? 4 Jan

Paid Vacations in the Third World? Date: February 20 2006 No: 787 Paid Vacations in the Third World?
Retired diplomat Peter Rice has written a letter to the Wall Street Journal stating that Peace Corps "is really just a U.S. government program for paid vacations in the Third World." Director Vasquez has responded that "the small stipend volunteers receive during their two years of service is more than returned in the understanding fostered in communities throughout the world and here at home." What do RPCVs think?

RPCV admits to abuse while in Peace Corps Date: February 3 2006 No: 780 RPCV admits to abuse while in Peace Corps
Timothy Ronald Obert has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a minor in Costa Rica while serving there as a Peace Corps volunteer. "The Peace Corps has a zero tolerance policy for misconduct that violates the law or standards of conduct established by the Peace Corps," said Peace Corps Director Gaddi H. Vasquez. Could inadequate screening have been partly to blame? Mr. Obert's resume, which he had submitted to the Peace Corps in support of his application to become a Peace Corps Volunteer, showed that he had repeatedly sought and obtained positions working with underprivileged children. Read what RPCVs have to say about this case.

Military Option sparks concerns Date: January 3 2006 No: 773 Military Option sparks concerns
The U.S. military, struggling to fill its voluntary ranks, is allowing recruits to meet part of their reserve military obligations after active duty by serving in the Peace Corps. Read why there is opposition to the program among RPCVs. Director Vasquez says the agency has a long history of accepting qualified applicants who are in inactive military status. John Coyne says "Not only no, but hell no!" and RPCV Chris Matthews leads the debate on "Hardball." Avi Spiegel says Peace Corps is not the place for soldiers while Coleman McCarthy says to Welcome Soldiers to the Peace Corps. Read our poll results. Latest: Congress passed a bill on December 22 including language to remove Peace Corps from the National Call to Service (NCS) military recruitment program

Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in danger Date: October 22 2005 No: 738 Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in danger
When the National Call to Service legislation was amended to include Peace Corps in December of 2002, this country had not yet invaded Iraq and was not in prolonged military engagement in the Middle East, as it is now. Read the story of how one volunteer spent three years in captivity from 1976 to 1980 as the hostage of a insurrection group in Colombia in Joanne Marie Roll's op-ed on why this legislation may put soldier/PCVs in the same kind of danger. Latest: Read the ongoing dialog on the subject.

Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000  strong Date: April 2 2005 No: 543 Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong
170,000 is a very special number for the RPCV community - it's the number of Volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961. It's also a number that is very special to us because March is the first month since our founding in January, 2001 that our readership has exceeded 170,000. And while we know that not everyone who comes to this site is an RPCV, they are all "Friends of the Peace Corps." Thanks everybody for making PCOL your source of news for the Returned Volunteer community.


Read the stories and leave your comments.






Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

Story Source: Peace Corps

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; 45th Anniversary; Awards

PCOL32064
70


Add a Message


This is a public posting area. Enter your username and password if you have an account. Otherwise, enter your full name as your username and leave the password blank. Your e-mail address is optional.
Username:  
Password:
E-mail: