2011.01.25: January 25, 2011: Graduate student to explore early connection between Peace Corps, Northern Illinois University, the third training site in the Midwest
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2011.01.25: January 25, 2011: Graduate student to explore early connection between Peace Corps, Northern Illinois University, the third training site in the Midwest
Graduate student to explore early connection between Peace Corps, Northern Illinois University, the third training site in the Midwest
NIU's Peace Corps heritage is a relatively little-known postscript to local and campus history. Yet the university had the distinction of being the third training site in the Midwest for the now 50-year-old Peace Corps program, established by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. Shriver himself visited DeKalb in April 1962. Hancock will discuss how and why the Corps' training program first came to NIU, recruiting busloads of volunteers headed for Malaya (now Malaysia), and later the Philippines and Thailand. The NIU Peace Corps training program was relocated in1968 to Hawaii and then to Southeast Asia. Still, about 1,200 volunteers had trained in DeKalb for service in the Peace Corps. It became a life-changing experience for many and laid the groundwork for the establishment of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS).
Graduate student to explore early connection between Peace Corps, Northern Illinois University, the third training site in the Midwest
Graduate student to explore early connection between Peace Corps, NIU at Friday lecture
Founder Sargent Shriver once visited DeKalb campus
Peace Corps founder and director
Caption: Sargent Shriver visits NIU on April 10, 1962.
Peace Corps founder and director Sargent Shriver visits NIU on April 10, 1962.
History graduate student Maria ‘Rai' Hancock will explore NIU's rich Peace Corps heritage during a public lecture from noon to 12:50 p.m. Friday in Room 110 of the Campus Life Building.
The presentation, titled "Connecting Globally, Locally: NIU, Southeast Asia, and the Peace Corps," honors the memory of the late R. Sargent Shriver, founder and first director of the Peace Corps, who died Jan. 18.
NIU's Peace Corps heritage is a relatively little-known postscript to local and campus history.
Yet the university had the distinction of being the third training site in the Midwest for the now 50-year-old Peace Corps program, established by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. Shriver himself visited DeKalb in April 1962.
Hancock will discuss how and why the Corps' training program first came to NIU, recruiting busloads of volunteers headed for Malaya (now Malaysia), and later the Philippines and Thailand.
The NIU Peace Corps training program was relocated in1968 to Hawaii and then to Southeast Asia. Still, about 1,200 volunteers had trained in DeKalb for service in the Peace Corps. It became a life-changing experience for many and laid the groundwork for the establishment of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS).
Today, a number of former Southeast Asia Peace Corps volunteers can be counted among current and retired faculty affiliated with the center, including Jim and Patricia Henry, John Hartmann, Grant Olson, CSEAS Director Jim Collins and Clark and Arlene Neher.
Hancock's talk is part of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies' weekly lecture series.
This year marks the 50th anniversary for the Peace Corps, which is working to increase its volunteer numbers and is currently recruiting on campus.
Peace Corps information and applications are available online and must be submitted by Wednesday, Feb. 9, for those wishing to set up an interview at NIU later in the month.
Peace Corps representatives will be on hand at the Spring Job Fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23, at the NIU Convocation Center. They also will conduct an information session from 6 to 7 p.m. that same day in Room 406 of the Holmes Student Center. Interviews with potential Corps candidates will be held Thursday, Feb. 24.
For more information, contact Peace Corps representative Rok Teasley at (312) 353-1128 or rteasley@peacecorps.gov.
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: January, 2011; Training; Shriver; The 1960's; Illinois
When this story was posted in June 2011, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| Peace Corps: The Next Fifty Years As we move into the Peace Corps' second fifty years, what single improvement would most benefit the mission of the Peace Corps? Read our op-ed about the creation of a private charitable non-profit corporation, independent of the US government, whose focus would be to provide support and funding for third goal activities. Returned Volunteers need President Obama to support the enabling legislation, already written and vetted, to create the Peace Corps Foundation. RPCVs will do the rest. |
| How Volunteers Remember Sarge As the Peace Corps' Founding Director Sargent Shriver laid the foundations for the most lasting accomplishment of the Kennedy presidency. Shriver spoke to returned volunteers at the Peace Vigil at Lincoln Memorial in September, 2001 for the Peace Corps 40th. "The challenge I believe is simple - simple to express but difficult to fulfill. That challenge is expressed in these words: PCV's - stay as you are. Be servants of peace. Work at home as you have worked abroad. Humbly, persistently, intelligently. Weep with those who are sorrowful, Care for those who are sick. Serve your wives, serve your husbands, serve your families, serve your neighbors, serve your cities, serve the poor, join others who also serve," said Shriver. "Serve, Serve, Serve. That's the answer, that's the objective, that's the challenge." |
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Story Source: NIU
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