March 1, 2003: Headlines: COS - Afghanistan: Pomona Magazine: Almost 40 years ago, after graduating from Pomona College in 1963, Dennis Aronson and Susan (Girdler) Aronson were married and joined the Peace Corps. Their assignment: Afghanistan.
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March 1, 2003: Headlines: COS - Afghanistan: Pomona Magazine: Almost 40 years ago, after graduating from Pomona College in 1963, Dennis Aronson and Susan (Girdler) Aronson were married and joined the Peace Corps. Their assignment: Afghanistan.
Almost 40 years ago, after graduating from Pomona College in 1963, Dennis Aronson and Susan (Girdler) Aronson were married and joined the Peace Corps. Their assignment: Afghanistan.
Almost 40 years ago, after graduating from Pomona College in 1963, Dennis Aronson and Susan (Girdler) Aronson were married and joined the Peace Corps. Their assignment: Afghanistan.
Dennis Aronson ’63 and Susan (Girdler) Aronson ’63
Almost 40 years ago, after graduating from Pomona College in 1963, Susan (Girdler) and I were married and joined the Peace Corps. Our assignment: Afghanistan.
The Peace Corps experience had a profound influence on our lives, our careers, our subsequent volunteer work, many of our personal relationships and our appreciation of being United States citizens.
We both taught English as a foreign language (TEFL) in Afghanistan from 1963 to 1965. After our Peace Corps service, we continued in TEFL in Saudi Arabia and in Lebanon. (I took my MA in TEFL at the American University of Beirut.) Back in the United States, Susan taught foreign students, and we were instrumental in establishing an ESL program in West Virginia.
Susan was always dedicated to helping people in need. She cared for disadvantaged foster babies, coordinated CROP Walks (to provide food overseas and in the United States) and headed up numerous outreach projects throughout her life. One of her major volunteer efforts was editing the newsletter for Friends of Afghanistan, an affiliate of the National Peace Corps Association. I became the editor after Susan passed away in May 2002.
We met many of our friends through the Peace Corps experience, including several students and Afghan colleagues with whom we have kept in touch over the years. During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, a former student became a political prisoner and was threatened to be killed. He was released after Amnesty International intervened—and we became AI members.
Many of our activities were focused on the third goal of the Peace Corps: bringing the world back home. We gave many presentations about the experience of living in and learning about a different culture and the way the experience made us appreciate what we have here in the United States: a democratic system of government with freedom of speech and movement, educational opportunities and an abundance of clean food and water. (I still appreciate being able to use water out of a tap and not having to boil drinking water.)
In short, the Peace Corps experience had a major impact on our lives.
—Deborah Haar Clark
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: Pomona Magazine
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Afghanistan
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