2007.04.25: April 25, 2007: Headlines: Figures: COS - Tunisia: Staff: Deputy Directors - Olsen: Michigan tech Lode: Peace Corps Deputy Director to Speak at Michigan Tech Spring Commencement
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2007.04.25: April 25, 2007: Headlines: Figures: COS - Tunisia: Staff: Deputy Directors - Olsen: Michigan tech Lode: Peace Corps Deputy Director to Speak at Michigan Tech Spring Commencement
Peace Corps Deputy Director to Speak at Michigan Tech Spring Commencement
Michigan Tech is home to the largest Master’s International Peace Corps programs in the country. In addition to the forestry program, the university has three unique master’s international programs, in science education, disaster mitigation and civil and environmental engineering. The university provides the Peace Corps with a particularly valuable stream of volunteers. “Michigan Tech educates people in what the Peace Corps calls ‘scarce skills’,” Orr said. Volunteers with training in fields such as forestry and engineering are in short supply. “The Peace Corps has said if they could get twice as many foresters to apply, they would take them,” he 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 to Speak at Michigan Tech Spring Commencement
Web exclusive: Peace Corps Deputy Director to Speak at Spring Commencement
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Michigan Tech will honor the achievements of more than 800 degree candidates during Spring Commencement ceremonies Saturday, May 5.
A total of 674 bachelor’s degrees will be awarded, along with 14 associate degrees, 42 doctorates and 94 master of science degrees. In addition, nine Master of Business Administration and two Master of Engineering degrees will be presented.
Josephine “Jody” Olsen, deputy director of the Peace Corps, will give the commencement address and receive an Honorary Doctorate in Sustainable International Development.
Amy Trahey, owner of Great Lakes Engineering Group, in Lansing, and a 1994 graduate of Michigan Tech, will receive the Outstanding Young Alumni Award. Other honorees include Harvard biomedical engineering professor David Edwards, who graduated from Michigan Tech in 1983 and will receive the Melvin Calvin Medal of Distinction; and Pedro Ortega Romero, president of the University of Sonora, in Mexico, who will receive an Honorary Doctorate in Engineering.
As the deputy director of the Peace Corps, Olsen supports several initiatives, including strengthening the recruitment of older volunteers, measuring the impact of the Peace Corps and helping other countries promote volunteerism among their own people.
Olsen started her career with the Peace Corps as a volunteer from 1966 to 1968 in Tunisia, teaching English and developing community health programs. In 1979, she was named the country director for Togo, where she managed programs focused on education, health and agriculture in the West African nation. From 1981 to 1984, she served as regional director in North Africa, the Near East, Asia and the Pacific. As chief of staff from 1989 to 1992, she helped to expand the agency’s work to 25 new countries after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Olsen then served as senior vice president of the Academy for Educational Development, a large international organization, and served as the executive director for the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, the agency responsible for managing the Fulbright Senior Scholar Program. President George W. Bush appointed Olsen deputy director of the Peace Corps in 2002.
Olsen earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Utah and a master's degree in social work and a doctoral degree in education from the University of Maryland, where she founded and directed the Center on Aging.
Michigan Tech professor Blair Orr, coordinator for the university’s Loret Miller Ruppe Master’s International Program in Forestry, first recommended Olsen as commencement speaker.
Michigan Tech is home to the largest Master’s International Peace Corps programs in the country. In addition to the forestry program, the university has three unique master’s international programs, in science education, disaster mitigation and civil and environmental engineering.
The university provides the Peace Corps with a particularly valuable stream of volunteers. “Michigan Tech educates people in what the Peace Corps calls ‘scarce skills’,” Orr said. Volunteers with training in fields such as forestry and engineering are in short supply. “The Peace Corps has said if they could get twice as many foresters to apply, they would take them,” he said.
Amy (Grisdale) Trahey joined the Michigan Department of Transportation after graduating from Michigan Tech with a BS in Civil Engineering and a love of bridges. In 2000, she founded Great Lakes Engineering Group, one of only three engineering firms in the state owned by a woman. The firm specializes in the inspection, design and construction oversight of bridges. In awe of bridges since her youth, Trahey is dedicated to their rehabilitation, preservation and safety.
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Headlines: April, 2007; RPCV Jody Olsen (Tunisia); Figures; Peace Corps Tunisia; Directory of Tunisia RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Tunisia RPCVs; Staff; Michigan
When this story was posted in April 2007, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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| 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. |
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Story Source: Michigan tech Lode
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Tunisia; Staff; Deputy Directors - Olsen
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