October 23, 2005: Headlines: COS - Bulgaria: Sports: Track and Field: Buffalo News: Katharine Clark is Peace Corps Volunteer in Bulgaria
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October 23, 2005: Headlines: COS - Bulgaria: Sports: Track and Field: Buffalo News: Katharine Clark is Peace Corps Volunteer in Bulgaria
Katharine Clark is Peace Corps Volunteer in Bulgaria
"The pace of Bulgarian small town life is certainly a contrast to non-stop New York," Clark says. "In general, Bulgarians are more relaxed and don't let minor inconveniences like overlapping fashion shoots disrupt their day. They recognize that worrying will not necessarily fix anything."
Katharine Clark is Peace Corps Volunteer in Bulgaria
Sunday Profile / Katharine Clark ; Volunteer bridges cultural gap
Oct 23, 2005 - Buffalo News
She is a Niagara Frontier track-and-field champion whose "high hurdle" skills have helped her soar over life's difficulties.
"With sports, I learned so much about responsibility, dedication and recovering from loss at an early age," says Katharine Clark, 24, a Lewiston-Porter High School graduate, now a Peace Corps volunteer in Bulgaria.
She says her coach, Mark Johnson, "preached 'mental toughness' -- a concept I translated as the struggle between a battered body and a racing mind. It is an enduringly applicable concept."
That discipline has served her well in her challenges within the once-communist country between Turkey and Romania, bordering the Black Sea.
"In many cases, I'm the only American my new neighbors have ever met," Clark says. "For me, it's a great responsibility to behave in a favorable manner at a time when many parts of the world are critical of American foreign policy. The beauty of the Peace Corps is that groups of optimistic and idealistic volunteers are not selling something in a literal sense. What we are doing is giving people all over the world an opportunity to work with real Americans and benefit from the cultural skills and language exchange."
It's an exchange that goes both ways for Katharine Clark -- or "Katarina" as she's called by her colleagues.
The Bulgarian children to whom she teaches English "went crazy for my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches; peanut butter is exceptionally rare here."
And now she's introducing America's Halloween:
"We'll have a costume party complete with ghost stories and jack- o-lanterns," she says.
The children's "inquisitive nature is not limited to learning English, so I incorporate aspects of American culture into my lessons," says Clark, who holds a degree from Columbia University.
As a college student, Clark had a few internships, including one in the fashion industry, "a whirlwind of collaborations," with editors from Vogue and Harper's Bazaar magazines.
Time in the Peace Corps, she felt, would "be a nice diversion."
"The pace of Bulgarian small town life is certainly a contrast to non-stop New York," Clark says. "In general, Bulgarians are more relaxed and don't let minor inconveniences like overlapping fashion shoots disrupt their day. They recognize that worrying will not necessarily fix anything."
After the Peace Corps, Clark says she plans to "either study international relations at the graduate level, or enter the foreign service."
Some would say she is already doing that.
When this story was posted in December 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| 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. |
| PC establishes awards for top Volunteers Gaddi H. Vasquez has established the Kennedy Service Awards to honor the hard work and service of two current Peace Corps Volunteers, two returned Peace Corps Volunteers, and two Peace Corps staff members. The award to currently serving volunteers will be based on a demonstration of impact, sustainability, creativity, and catalytic effect. Submit your nominations by December 9. |
| Peace Corps at highest Census in 30 years Congratulations to the Peace Corps for the highest number of volunteers in 30 years with 7,810 volunteers serving in 71 posts across the globe. Of course, the President's proposal to double the Peace Corps to 15,000 volunteers made in his State of the Union Address in 2002 is now a long forgotten dream. With deficits in federal spending stretching far off into the future, any substantive increase in the number of volunteers will have to wait for new approaches to funding and for a new administration. Choose your candidate and start working for him or her now. |
| 'Celebration of Service' a major success The Peace Corps Fund's 'Celebration of Service' on September 29 in New York City was a major success raising approximately $100,000 for third goal activities. In the photo are Maureen Orth (Colombia); John Coyne (Ethiopia) Co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund; Caroline Kennedy; Barbara Anne Ferris (Morocco) Co-founder; Former Senator Harris Wofford, member of the Advisory Board. Read the story here. |
| PC apologizes for the "Kasama incident" The District Commissioner for the Kasama District in Zambia issued a statement banning Peace Corps activities for ‘grave’ social misconduct and unruly behavior for an incident that occurred on September 24 involving 13 PCVs. Peace Corps said that some of the information put out about the incident was "inflammatory and false." On October 12, Country Director Davy Morris met with community leaders and apologized for the incident. All PCVs involved have been reprimanded, three are returning home, and a ban in the district has since been lifted. |
| The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related stories in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can find hundreds of stories about what RPCVs with your same interests or from your Country of Service are doing today. If you have a web site, support the "Peace Corps Library" and link to it today. |
| 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. |
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Story Source: Buffalo News
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Bulgaria; Sports; Track and Field
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