2006.05.08: May 8, 2006: Headlines: Directors - Vasquez: Canton Repository: Gaddi Vasquez gives commencement address at Walsh University
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2006.05.08: May 8, 2006: Headlines: Directors - Vasquez: Canton Repository: Gaddi Vasquez gives commencement address at Walsh University
Gaddi Vasquez gives commencement address at Walsh University
Not everyone is cut out to be in the Peace Corps, which requires a two-year commitment. Those who are, he said, should “think about serving people in need. Don’t be content to be a spectator; be a participant.”
Gaddi Vasquez gives commencement address at Walsh University
Give Peace (Corps) a chance
Monday, May 8, 2006
By JAN H. KENNEDY Repository STAFF WRITER
BOB ROSSITER
Peace Corps Director Gaddi Vasquez gave that message to the 2006 Walsh University graduating class Sunday. He was the commencement speaker.
NORTH CANTON - Dedicate at least part of your life to helping others — that was the message the 2006 graduating class of Walsh University heard at commencement ceremonies Sunday — twice.
Peace Corps Director Gaddi Vasquez, head of more than 8,000 volunteers working in 75 countries, gave the commencement address. The son of migrant workers from Mexico was the first in his family to earn a college degree. President George W. Bush appointed him to his current position in January 2002.
“You are entering one of the strongest job markets in years,” Vasquez told the graduates. “You will have a lot of job opportunities waiting for you out there. But you must remember that to whom so much has been given, much is required.”
Not everyone is cut out to be in the Peace Corps, which requires a two-year commitment. Those who are, he said, should “think about serving people in need. Don’t be content to be a spectator; be a participant.”
Vasquez started his speech by praising parents for their dedication and sacrifices, and recalled the day when his son graduated from college.
“It was like I just got a big raise,” he said, bringing laughter from the audience. “No more putting out money for tuition and books, and I could turn the student loans over to him.”
He talked about days when the family bank account had little more than love in it. He said his mother was good at many things, but “she was not a negotiator. If we didn’t get our schoolwork done, she took us to the backyard, took a twig off a tree, took the leaves off the twig and had at it. Someone later said it sounded like I was an abused child. I wasn’t abused, I was motivated.
“Even though we had little, my parents taught me the greatest value was in giving, more than receiving,” he said.
Local entrepreneur Gaetano “Guy” Cecchini was given the Distinguished Service Medal for starting a program 25 years ago at Walsh to make scholarships available to McDonald’s restaurant employees.
He recalled starting as an immigrant to his efforts to improve his community. Cecchini owns 17 McDonald’s restaurants in Stark County today. He said some of his greatest enjoyments in life have been in watching community projects to help less fortunate people flourish, projects such as the Canton Community Clinic.
Cecchini asked the graduates not to rest on their laurels.
“Don’t wait for the future; create the future,” he said. “You can do it. I did it.”
In an interview before his address, Vasquez talked about a resurgence in the Peace Corps.
The Peace Corps volunteer list is at a 30-year high now, and Congress has funded it at its highest historic levels during the last three years. The budget this year is $317 million.
“That’s the best bang for the buck you will find,” Vasquez said. “The Peace Corps in the 21st century is putting a face on America. It represents peace, friendship and understanding. What better time than now, with all that’s going on in the world today.
“There is an American spirit and will that is high right now to promote the United States,” he said. “They are dispelling ignorance about who we are as a people.”
The Peace Corps once had 15,000 volunteers in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when it was an alternative to the draft. When the nation reached the “me” generation in the 1980s and into the 1990s, participation dropped to the mid-4,000 range, Vasquez said. Today, it is at 8,000. A branch opened in Mexico two years ago for the first time, and another will open in Cambodia next year.
“This generation seems to think more globally,” he said. “We’re also getting more elderly people, and couples who have retired, all wanting to give something back. And they’re more specialized now, in health, education, technology and teaching English.”
Reach Repository writer Jan H. Kennedy at (330) 580-8325 or e-mail: jan.kennedy@cantonrep.com
When this story was posted in May 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| It's Official: Vasquez nominated to FAO Exactly one week ago we predicted that Director Vasquez would soon be receiving a major ambassadorship. Today the White House confirmed that Vasquez will be the new Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture replacing Tony Hall.
PCOL Comment: Director Vasquez, let us be the first to thank you for your service to the Peace Corps, congratulate you on your new appointment, and wish you good luck in your future endeavors. Although we have had our differences over the years and we opposed your nomination in 2001, we think you are leaving a solid legacy of accomplishment and have served the Peace Corps well.
Initiatives and Accomplishments: Vasquez's major initiatives and accomplishments since becoming Peace Corps Director include: an agreement with Mexico in 2003 to host volunteers, sending RPCVs to work domestically in Hurricane relief after Katrina, emphasis on recruitment of minorities and of community college graduates, upgrading Peace Corps' infrastructure especially IT upgrades in the online application tracking process and the Volunteer Delivery System, an emphasis on safety and security of volunteers including the creation of a Situation Room at Peace Corps Headquarters, modifying Peace Corps' "Five Year Rule" for employment, and the expansion of the Peace Corps to its highest level in 30 years. He is the third longest serving Peace Corps Director after Loret Ruppe Miller and Sargent Shriver. |
| 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. |
| Interview with a Hit Man RPCV John Perkins says that for many years he was an "economic hit man" in the world of international finance whose primary job was to convince less developed countries to accept multibillion dollar loans for infrastructure projects that left the recipient countries wallowing in debt and highly vulnerable to outside political and commercial interests. In this exclusive interview for "Peace Corps Online," Colombia RPCV Joanne Roll, author of Remember with Honor, talks to Perkins about his Peace Corps service, his relation with the NSA, "colonization" in Ecuador, the consequences of his work, why he decided to speak out, and what his hopes are for change. |
| Peace Corps stonewalls on FOIA request The Ashland Daily Tidings reports that Peace Corps has blocked their request for information on the Volkart case. "After the Tidings requested information pertaining to why Volkart was denied the position — on March 2 — the newspaper received a letter from the Peace Corps FOIA officer stating the requested information was protected under an exemption of the act." The Dayton Daily News had similar problems with FOIA requests for their award winning series on Volunteer Safety and Security. |
| PCOL readership increases 100% Monthly readership on "Peace Corps Online" has increased in the past twelve months to 350,000 visitors - over eleven thousand every day - a 100% increase since this time last year. Thanks again, RPCVs and Friends of the Peace Corps, for making PCOL your source of information for the Peace Corps community. And thanks for supporting the Peace Corps Library and History of the Peace Corps. Stay tuned, the best is yet to come. |
| History of the Peace Corps PCOL is proud to announce that Phase One of the "History of the Peace Corps" is now available online. This installment includes over 5,000 pages of primary source documents from the archives of the Peace Corps including every issue of "Peace Corps News," "Peace Corps Times," "Peace Corps Volunteer," "Action Update," and every annual report of the Peace Corps to Congress since 1961. "Ask Not" is an ongoing project. Read how you can help. |
| PC announces new program in Cambodia Director Vasquez and Cambodia's Deputy Chief of Mission Meng Eang Nay announced a historic new partnership between the Peace Corps and the Kingdom of Cambodia that will bring volunteers to this Southeast Asian country for the first time. Under King Norodom Sihamoni and Prime Minister Hun Sen, Cambodia has welcomed new partnerships with the U.S. government and other U.S. organizations. |
| Peace Corps suspends program in Bangladesh Peace Corps Director Gaddi H. Vasquez announced the suspension of the Peace Corps program in Bangladesh on March 15. The safety and security of volunteers is the number one priority of the Peace Corps. Therefore, all Peace Corps volunteers serving in Bangladesh have safely left the country. More than 280 Peace Corps volunteers have served in Bangladesh since the program opened in November 1998. Latest: What other newspapers say. |
| 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." Latest: Volkart reverses stance, takes new assignment in Paraguay. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
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