Robert Strauss, who as country director for the Peace Corps program in Cameroon from 2002 until February of 2007, recently wrote a New York Times op-ed piece critical of Peace Corps in general and of the Peace Corps in Cameroon in particular. But, Strauss's article ignored Peace Corps' second and third goals -- promoting understanding across cultures -- and lamented that Peace Corps had little or no data to corroborate the success of the first goal, promoting training. Such data are notoriously hard to obtain. When I returned from Cameroon in 1997, I could have argued, with personal anecdotes, that I had, indeed, helped that country's people. But, it has taken quite a while for me to fully understand my impact. As a side-effect of my service in Cameroon, I have helped about a dozen students from the University of Buea attend Lehigh University, two as undergraduates and the rest as graduate students. Two have earned Ph.Ds. in physics and have stayed on as post-doctoral students. A few months ago, they recalled that they were in one of my mathematics classes their first semester at the University of Buea, a very impressionable time in their lives. In that class, they encountered a typical enthusiastic American Peace Corps volunteer who was willing to work quite hard to effectively teach in a foreign culture. Confronted with such a teacher who was willing to make such an effort, they felt obligated to respond in kind. Because of my previous experience as a teacher, I had the appropriate skills for the Cameroonian classroom, but more important, I brought a special excitement and enthusiasm to the classroom because of my role as a Peace Corps volunteer. The younger Peace Corps volunteers with whom I served taught science and mathematics in Cameroon's secondary schools. They had fewer skills but the same excitement and enthusiasm. I now know their service had a substantial positive impact.
Cameroon RPCV Edwin J. Kay writes: When my wife, Janice, and I tell people that we served in Peace Corps, they assume, because we are in our 60s, that we served in the 1960s.
At 47, Peace Corps seeks older volunteers
By Edwin J. Kay
February 29, 2008
Tomorrow is the 47th anniversary of the founding of Peace Corps in 1961. The inspiration of President Kennedy and its goals remain unchanged since its inception: helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women; helping to promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served; and helping to promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.
When my wife, Janice, and I tell people that we served in Peace Corps, they assume, because we are in our 60s, that we served in the 1960s. We did initially apply to the Peace Corps in 1966, but we withdrew our applications. We ended up serving from 1995 to 1997 in Cameroon, West Africa. Our main motivation for service was our long-term personal goal of wanting to live for at least a year in another culture, hoping to gain some understanding of it and hoping to better understand our own culture. We recognized that this personal goal subsumed the second and third goals of Peace Corps.
If, somehow, we also helped the people in our host country, then so much the better. During our service in Cameroon I taught mathematics at the University of Buea, and Janice taught hotel catering at OIC-Cameroon, an adult vocational program modeled after the Rev. Leon Sullivan's OIC- Philadelphia.
Robert Strauss, who as country director for the Peace Corps program in Cameroon from 2002 until February of 2007, recently wrote a New York Times op-ed piece critical of Peace Corps in general and of the Peace Corps in Cameroon in particular. But, Strauss's article ignored Peace Corps' second and third goals -- promoting understanding across cultures -- and lamented that Peace Corps had little or no data to corroborate the success of the first goal, promoting training.
Such data are notoriously hard to obtain. When I returned from Cameroon in 1997, I could have argued, with personal anecdotes, that I had, indeed, helped that country's people. But, it has taken quite a while for me to fully understand my impact.
As a side-effect of my service in Cameroon, I have helped about a dozen students from the University of Buea attend Lehigh University, two as undergraduates and the rest as graduate students. Two have earned Ph.Ds. in physics and have stayed on as post-doctoral students. A few months ago, they recalled that they were in one of my mathematics classes their first semester at the University of Buea, a very impressionable time in their lives.
In that class, they encountered a typical enthusiastic American Peace Corps volunteer who was willing to work quite hard to effectively teach in a foreign culture. Confronted with such a teacher who was willing to make such an effort, they felt obligated to respond in kind. Because of my previous experience as a teacher, I had the appropriate skills for the Cameroonian classroom, but more important, I brought a special excitement and enthusiasm to the classroom because of my role as a Peace Corps volunteer. The younger Peace Corps volunteers with whom I served taught science and mathematics in Cameroon's secondary schools. They had fewer skills but the same excitement and enthusiasm. I now know their service had a substantial positive impact.
Recently, Janice and I were asked, ''Would you do it again?'' If the question is about the past, then we certainly made the right decision. Peace Corps service profoundly affected our lives for the better. If the question is about the future ... we are thinking about it.
Strauss does suggest that Peace Corps should do more to recruit older volunteers. Traditionally, the percentage of Peace Corps volunteers over 50 has been in the single digits. Peace Corps now has the goal of substantially increasing the number of volunteers over 50. Merle Rubine, a returned Peace Corps volunteer who served in Ivory Coast when over 50, now is a Peace Corps recruiter helping pursue that goal. She will be making a presentation for potential volunteers over 50 at 6 p.m. on March 6 in Conference Room 5 of the Kaysch Family Pavilion of Lehigh Valley Hospital on Cedar Crest Boulevard.
Edwin J. Kay is associate chair of computer science and engineering and co-director of the Computer Science and Business program at Lehigh University in Bethlehem. His e-mail address is edwink@lehigh.edu.
