"There were three teams of Peace Corps volunteers working side by side with Colombian counterparts: studio producers, technical teams and the team I was on. We went from school district to school district training teachers and problem solving in-school issues. After a year of service, I was asked, by the country director, to help assist other volunteers, in an area the size of New Jersey. In that state, I supported programs of nutrition, rural and urban community action, and woman's health. I lived with a Colombian family, and became completely immersed in Colombian life and culture," Miron recalled.
David and Bernadette Miron served as Peace Corps Volunteers in Colombia in the early 1960s
Peace Corps volunteers remember experience of service
Corps marking 50th anniversary
Posted: March 6, 2011 - 1:28am
By LORRAINE THOMPSON
As the nation celebrates the founding of the Peace Corps on its 50th anniversary, locals who served in the corps reflect on their service and how it molded their lives.
Among the Peace Corps volunteers in the St. Augustine area (known as Returned Peace Corps Volunteers or RPCV's) are David Miron and his wife Bernadette Miron, Nana Royer, Lin Smith and Max Royle. Each had his/her own reason to enlist in the volunteer organization whose mission was to provide technical assistance, help people outside the United States to understand the U.S. culture, and vice-versa. However, the scope of their work went far beyond anyone's imagination.
[Excerpt]
David and Bernadette Miron
The year was 1963. David was a graduate student in a Latin American Studies program at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The Cuban Missile crisis had just passed.
"My first thought was what I am going to do with the rest of my life that would be meaningful? President John F. Kennedy's words were clear, 'Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.'"
Miron said he felt the need to test his education. "My second thought was, I need to get on the ground, someplace in Latin America, to find out if this is the area of expertise that I want to pursue for a career."
David's girlfriend, Bernadette Cupchak, was finishing her degree and also wanted to join the Peace Corps. "So we both applied and got placed in an educational television program in Columbia."
Colombia had been selected by U.S. AID and the Peace Corps to demonstrate that television could be an effective means to help transform primary school education. The idea was to take the best teacher of science, and put that person via the television, in as many primary schools as possible, every day and at the same time, standardize the curriculum.
"There were three teams of Peace Corps volunteers working side by side with Colombian counterparts: studio producers, technical teams and the team I was on. We went from school district to school district training teachers and problem solving in-school issues. After a year of service, I was asked, by the country director, to help assist other volunteers, in an area the size of New Jersey. In that state, I supported programs of nutrition, rural and urban community action, and woman's health. I lived with a Colombian family, and became completely immersed in Colombian life and culture," Miron recalled.
Six months before finishing his two year commitment, Bernadette and David married in Ibague, Colombia.
"My service helped me define a comfortable career assisting large organizations to manage change either in the U.S. or overseas. I finished at Georgetown. I was hired by Peace Corps Washington, which immediately sent me to school for economics of public policy, after which I returned to be the director of planning for Peace Corps. Once my five years in Washington was up, I furthered my graduate education at the doctoral level. I embarked on a career of advising large organizations both public and private on how to bring about successful large scale change.
"I kept up my language skills. With my wife, who also shared the Peace Corps experience, we have managed to continue to give back to our community and go out of our way for service opportunities.
David Miron retired as an IBM executive in 2003. He and Bernadette are residents of Ponte Vedra.
Bernadette retired after a long career in education. After Peace Corps, she taught in public schools in Washington, D.C., and Wayland, Ma. With an M.S. in special education from Boston University, she worked in a private school dedicated to children with learning disabilities, reading issues. She was tutor, teacher and middle school dean and retired as academic dean.
"President Kennedy's call to duty," she says, "continue to have meaning in my life."
