2007.05.07: May 7, 2007: Headlines: Figures: COS - Tunisia: Staff: Deputy Directors - Olsen: Blogs: Daily Mining Gazette: Peace Corps Deputy Director Jody Olsen praises Peace Corps Volunteers' blogs at Michigan Tech University
Peace Corps Online:
Peace Corps News:
Library:
Peace Corps: Blogs:
Blogs and the Peace Corps:
2007.05.07: May 7, 2007: Headlines: Figures: COS - Tunisia: Staff: Deputy Directors - Olsen: Blogs: Daily Mining Gazette: Peace Corps Deputy Director Jody Olsen praises Peace Corps Volunteers' blogs at Michigan Tech University
Peace Corps Deputy Director Jody Olsen praises Peace Corps Volunteers' blogs at Michigan Tech University
She cited one blog she’d read from a Michigan Tech University student in Panama. “... Michigan Tech students are reading it, his family, his community ... many of us are able to have the details of his two-year stay in Panama in a way that we never could before,” she said. Jody Olsen, Deputy Director of the Peace Corps appointed by President George W. Bush, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tunisia.
Peace Corps Deputy Director Jody Olsen praises Peace Corps Volunteers' blogs at Michigan Tech University
Peace Corps deputy director speaks at Michigan Tech
By GARRETT NEESE, DMG Writer
HOUGHTON — Josephine Olsen has a suggestion for Michigan Tech University graduates: “Go in the Peace Corps.”
Then again, it’s hard to be neutral when you’re its deputy director.
Olsen, who has held the post since 2002, was in town to deliver the commencement address at Michigan Tech’s spring graduation Saturday.
“What’s most important is that students learn about cultures, learn about languages, and find any opportunity, short-term or long-term, to experience a people or culture that is very different from where they are, and let themselves become a part of it,” she said in an interview Friday.
Many Michigan Tech students have already heeded the call, Olsen said: Tech has the largest Master’s International Peace Corps programs in the country. Seventy-seven Tech students are volunteering internationally, supplying 23 countries with much-needed help in critical areas such as forestry and engineering.
“Students from Michigan Tech have been extraordinary volunteers,” she said.
Another Copper Country connection comes from Loret Ruppe, the late wife of former U.S. Rep. Philip Ruppe. She served eight years as head of the Peace Corps, still a record.
This visit is a memorable one for Olsen, who worked under Ruppe for three years.
“I heard a lot about the U.P.,” she said. “I heard a lot about Michigan Tech. She was always very proud of her U.P. roots. Part of this is for me to be here and honor her memory, and her leadership for peace, and the Peace Corps.”
As an undergraduate at the University of Utah, Olsen was spurred to join the Peace Corps by a 10-minute speech on campus.
“I thought, ‘I want to do this,’” she said.
She began her career with the Peace Corps in 1966, volunteering for two years in Tunisia as an English teacher and developing community health programs.
Other Peace Corps work included stints as director of the Corps’ mission in Togo, and as director of a 17-country region encompassing North Africa, Near East, Asia and the Pacific.
In 1989, Olsen began a three-year stretch as chief of staff for the Peace Corps. Aided by the fall of the Iron Curtain, volunteers went into 25 new countries during that span.
9/11 was also a catalyst for interest in the Peace Corps, making young Americans more conscious of international affairs.
“We had an enormous number of people say, ‘We want to get behind the headlines ... What can we do to show who we are? What can we do to make a difference?’” Olsen said.
And those people have an unprecedented ability to share what they’re doing, aided by tools such as cell phones, e-mail and blogs. She cited one blog she’d read from a Michigan Tech University student in Panama.
“... Michigan Tech students are reading it, his family, his community ... many of us are able to have the details of his two-year stay in Panama in a way that we never could before,” she said.
Garrett Neese can be reached at gneese@mininggazette.com
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: May, 2007; RPCV Jody Olsen (Tunisia); Figures; Peace Corps Tunisia; Directory of Tunisia RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Tunisia RPCVs; Staff; Blogs; Michigan
When this story was posted in May 2007, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| PCOL serves half million PCOL's readership for April exceeded 525,000 visitors - a 50% increase over last year. This year also saw the advent of a new web site: Peace Corps News that together with the Peace Corps Library and History of the Peace Corps serve 17,000 RPCVs, Staff, and Friends of the Peace Corps every day. Thanks for making PCOL your source of news for the Peace Corps community. Read more. |
| Suspect confesses in murder of PCV Search parties in the Philippines discovered the body of Peace Corps Volunteer Julia Campbell near Barangay Batad, Banaue town on April 17. Director Tschetter expressed his sorrow at learning the news. “Julia was a proud member of the Peace Corps family, and she contributed greatly to the lives of Filipino citizens in Donsol, Sorsogon, where she served,” he said. Latest: Suspect Juan Duntugan admits to killing Campbell. Leave your thoughts and condolences . |
| Warren Wiggins: Architect of the Peace Corps Warren Wiggins, who died at 84 on April 13, became one of the architects of the Peace Corps in 1961 when his paper, "A Towering Task," landed in the lap of Sargent Shriver, just as Shriver was trying to figure out how to turn the Peace Corps into a working federal department. Shriver was electrified by the treatise, which urged the agency to act boldly. Read Mr. Wiggins' obituary and biography, take an opportunity to read the original document that shaped the Peace Corps' mission, and read John Coyne's special issue commemorating "A Towering Task." |
| Chris Dodd's Vision for the Peace Corps Senator Chris Dodd (RPCV Dominican Republic) spoke at the ceremony for this year's Shriver Award and elaborated on issues he raised at Ron Tschetter's hearings. Dodd plans to introduce legislation that may include: setting aside a portion of Peace Corps' budget as seed money for demonstration projects and third goal activities (after adjusting the annual budget upward to accommodate the added expense), more volunteer input into Peace Corps operations, removing medical, healthcare and tax impediments that discourage older volunteers, providing more transparency in the medical screening and appeals process, a more comprehensive health safety net for recently-returned volunteers, and authorizing volunteers to accept, under certain circumstances, private donations to support their development projects. He plans to circulate draft legislation for review to members of the Peace Corps community and welcomes RPCV comments. |
| He served with honor One year ago, Staff Sgt. Robert J. Paul (RPCV Kenya) carried on an ongoing dialog on this website on the military and the peace corps and his role as a member of a Civil Affairs Team in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have just received a report that Sargeant Paul has been killed by a car bomb in Kabul. Words cannot express our feeling of loss for this tremendous injury to the entire RPCV community. Most of us didn't know him personally but we knew him from his words. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends. He was one of ours and he served with honor. |
| Peace Corps' Screening and Medical Clearance The purpose of Peace Corps' screening and medical clearance process is to ensure safe accommodation for applicants and minimize undue risk exposure for volunteers to allow PCVS to complete their service without compromising their entry health status. To further these goals, PCOL has obtained a copy of the Peace Corps Screening Guidelines Manual through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and has posted it in the "Peace Corps Library." Applicants and Medical Professionals (especially those who have already served as volunteers) are urged to review the guidelines and leave their comments and suggestions. Then read the story of one RPCV's journey through medical screening and his suggestions for changes to the process. |
| The Peace Corps is "fashionable" again The LA Times says that "the Peace Corps is booming again and "It's hard to know exactly what's behind the resurgence." PCOL Comment: Since the founding of the Peace Corps 45 years ago, Americans have answered Kennedy's call: "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." Over 182,000 have served. Another 200,000 have applied and been unable to serve because of lack of Congressional funding. The Peace Corps has never gone out of fashion. It's Congress that hasn't been keeping pace. |
| 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. |
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: Daily Mining Gazette
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Tunisia; Staff; Deputy Directors - Olsen; Blogs
PCOL37453
47
Can the material in the blogs be preserved?