2006.09.18: September 18, 2006: Headlines: COS - Paraguay: Fellows Programs: Fordham University: Paraguay RPCV Angel Ventling became the first Peace Corps fellow in Fordham's International Political Economy and Development (IPED) Program

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Paraguay: Peace Corps Paraguay: The Peace Corps in Paraguay: 2006.09.18: September 18, 2006: Headlines: COS - Paraguay: Fellows Programs: Fordham University: Paraguay RPCV Angel Ventling became the first Peace Corps fellow in Fordham's International Political Economy and Development (IPED) Program

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Paraguay RPCV Angel Ventling became the first Peace Corps fellow in Fordham's International Political Economy and Development (IPED) Program

Paraguay RPCV Angel Ventling became the first Peace Corps fellow in Fordham's International Political Economy and Development (IPED) Program

Ventling said what excites her about IPED is the chance to study in the classroom what she encountered in Paraguay. “I as an individual learned so much, changed so much,” she said of her time abroad. “I now have definite opinions about development work, about what is sustainability, about the meaning of poverty, and also why do poor countries stay poor after 50 years of richer countries trying to help them. Is it their own fault or is it the Western world’s fault? It’s a very complicated issue.”

Paraguay RPCV Angel Ventling became the first Peace Corps fellow in Fordham's International Political Economy and Development (IPED) Program

Fordham’s Peace Corps Fellows: Making a Difference

By Joe Orso

Jumping Off a Cliff, Landing on Track

Caption: Angel Ventling and Henry Schwalbenberg, Ph.D., at Fordham.
Photo courtesy of the Peace Corps


[Excerpt]

Fordham – First Fellow

Some have reverse culture shock when re-entering the United States from living abroad. Ventling didn’t have the time. She left Paraguay in August 2005 and began studies at Fordham three weeks later.

Ventling had been accepted to international studies programs at eight universities. In choosing Fordham, she became the first Peace Corps fellow in the IPED program. Through the fellowship, she received a full-tuition scholarship from Fordham and a grant from the federal government for working 15 hours a week at the University’s Neighborhood Housing program.

“Our role is to help them make that transition from their Peace Corps service to a professional career,” said Henry Schwalbenberg, Ph.D., associate professor of economics, director of IPED and coordinator of the fellows program. “In today’s world from a career perspective, we need to prepare people for jobs that have international dimensions.”

The Peace Corps had contacted Schwalbenberg in the spring of 2004 about starting the program. The initial Peace Corps Fellows/U.S.A. program began in 1985 at Columbia University’s Teachers College. The program works to fulfill the Peace Corps’ mission of helping Americans better understand other peoples.

Cary Ballou, director of Peace Corps Fellows/U.S.A., said about 4,000 people have completed the program, which is now at almost 50 universities. Last year, a record 351 enrolled as Peace Corps fellows.

“It benefits the university because they get great graduate students and it benefits the community because they get great people who do community service,” Ballou said. “It benefits the Peace Corps because we don’t want to just bring our volunteers back and dump them out with no support.”

Ballou said about 50 percent of Peace Corps volunteers want to go to graduate school within five years of returning from their projects.

“I will recruit anyone I can to go to IPED,” Ventling said. “I love it and I rave about it.”

She said administrators do a good job of building a small community and are concerned in seeing a student through to a job. She said the students are a good mix of national and international students with varied backgrounds.

Last year the fellows program helped attract two to three times as many Peace Corps veterans to enroll in IPED than usual, according to Schwalbenberg. This year, another student begins the second fellowship, and Schwalbenberg said he hopes to be able to start two fellows in the fall of 2007.

Working at an internship in a high needs community is a requirement for Peace Corps Fellows/U.S.A. to come to a university. In Ventling’s work at the University Neighborhood Housing program, she wrote grants, researched and analyzed why property prices are rising in the Bronx, and conducted econometric studies. In June, she married Alicio Arrua, a man she met in Paraguay. Ventling plans to graduate after this semester and plans to become a foreign service officer with the U.S. State Department.

Ventling said what excites her about IPED is the chance to study in the classroom what she encountered in Paraguay. “I as an individual learned so much, changed so much,” she said of her time abroad. “I now have definite opinions about development work, about what is sustainability, about the meaning of poverty, and also why do poor countries stay poor after 50 years of richer countries trying to help them. Is it their own fault or is it the Western world’s fault? It’s a very complicated issue.”





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Story Source: Fordham University

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Paraguay; Fellows Programs

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