2011.03.11: March 11, 2011: Bolivia RPCV Robert Gelbard helps Colby Celebrates the Peace Corps 50th
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2011.03.11: March 11, 2011: Bolivia RPCV Robert Gelbard helps Colby Celebrates the Peace Corps 50th
Bolivia RPCV Robert Gelbard helps Colby Celebrates the Peace Corps 50th
I was a Colby student when the Peace Corps was founded; that's how old I am," he said. During training, at Brandeis, Gelbard met a Jesuit priest who spoke Quechua, an indigenous language of the Andes, and became enchanted with the language. Placed in Bolivia, he became "the first blanco since the revolution" to visit particular villages high in the Andes. The people there didn't even have a monetary economy, he said. "These were people who'd never seen aid, never heard about aid, had no idea. They were tremendously self-reliant." But they knew what they wanted: a school to teach the children Spanish so the village could no longer be cheated when dealing with outsiders, public health so they could avoid cholera, and irrigation. Twenty-two years after his volunteer hitch at 14,000 feet, Gelbard returned to the country as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia-the first time a Peace Corps volunteer went back to their country of service as ambassador, he said. He credited the Peace Corps with directing him toward public service and the foreign service, and he credited his liberal arts education for preparing him to be of help as a just-graduated volunteer. "I was a poor kid from Brooklyn. What did I know?" he said. "But I knew how to find things out for them. I had learned how to learn when I was at Colby, and that put me in a very good position to help them to solve problems that they had, which led to some significant changes in their lives." he said.
Bolivia RPCV Robert Gelbard helps Colby Celebrates the Peace Corps 50th
Celebrating the Peace Corps, Plus
March 11, 2011
Celebrating the Peace Corps, Plus
The 50th anniversary of the founding of the Peace Corps warranted celebration on two fronts, Ambassador Robert Gelbard '64 told an audience on campus in March for just such a celebration. The Peace Corps spawned a new social phenomenon-a whole class of national service organizations, several of which were represented at the events-and it helped establish a perception of America abroad as a country unique for its volunteer ethos, commitment to service, culture of philanthropy. "That is something that's still unique to America," he said.
More than 100 students, community members, and former Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, City Year, and Teach for America alumni gathered March 10 for a dinner and panel discussion organized by the Goldfarb Center and featuring all of those programs. Gelbard, who served as a Peace Corps volunteer before a distinguished career in foreign service, moderated the panel.
"I was a Colby student when the Peace Corps was founded; that's how old I am," he said. During training, at Brandeis, Gelbard met a Jesuit priest who spoke Quechua, an indigenous language of the Andes, and became enchanted with the language. Placed in Bolivia, he became "the first blanco since the revolution" to visit particular villages high in the Andes.
The people there didn't even have a monetary economy, he said. "These were people who'd never seen aid, never heard about aid, had no idea. They were tremendously self-reliant." But they knew what they wanted: a school to teach the children Spanish so the village could no longer be cheated when dealing with outsiders, public health so they could avoid cholera, and irrigation.
Twenty-two years after his volunteer hitch at 14,000 feet, Gelbard returned to the country as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia-the first time a Peace Corps volunteer went back to their country of service as ambassador, he said. He credited the Peace Corps with directing him toward public service and the foreign service, and he credited his liberal arts education for preparing him to be of help as a just-graduated volunteer.
"I was a poor kid from Brooklyn. What did I know?" he said. "But I knew how to find things out for them. I had learned how to learn when I was at Colby, and that put me in a very good position to help them to solve problems that they had, which led to some significant changes in their lives." he said.
The panel he moderated (Goldfarb Center audio podcast is online) included: Mollie Puskar '08, who talked about the enormous opportunities, responsibilities, and ultimately impact she has experienced working with and for City Year; Mary Kathryn Brennan '02, who was an AmeriCorps member in the Southeast and who now is an attorney for Legal Services for the Elderly in southern Maine; Roger Schulman '92, whose Teach for America placement in Baltimore has led to a career in nonprofit education organizations, currently as CEO of the Fund for Educational Excellence in Baltimore; and Ellen Whitesides '03, who talked about her service in the Peace Corps in South Africa, but who also taught in Teach for America in New Orleans.
At the dinner Gelbard praised the College for its role in America's culture of national service, including the Peace Corps and Teach for America. "On a per student basis," he said, "Colby is one of the leading schools, perhaps the leading school in the United States," he said.
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: March, 2011; Peace Corps Bolivia; Directory of Bolivia RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Bolivia RPCVs; Diplomacy; 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps
When this story was posted in October 2011, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| Peace Corps Featured at Smithsonian Take a look at our photo essay of Peace Corps' featured program at the 2011 Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall in Washington DC to see how the festival showcased the work of Peace Corps volunteers in economic development and income generation; ways volunteers have helped support local groups to help educate communities; and food and cooking traditions that have played a role in the Peace Corps experience. New: Enjoy photos from the second week of the exposition. |
| Peace Corps: The Next Fifty Years As we move into the Peace Corps' second fifty years, what single improvement would most benefit the mission of the Peace Corps? Read our op-ed about the creation of a private charitable non-profit corporation, independent of the US government, whose focus would be to provide support and funding for third goal activities. Returned Volunteers need President Obama to support the enabling legislation, already written and vetted, to create the Peace Corps Foundation. RPCVs will do the rest. |
| How Volunteers Remember Sarge As the Peace Corps' Founding Director Sargent Shriver laid the foundations for the most lasting accomplishment of the Kennedy presidency. Shriver spoke to returned volunteers at the Peace Vigil at Lincoln Memorial in September, 2001 for the Peace Corps 40th. "The challenge I believe is simple - simple to express but difficult to fulfill. That challenge is expressed in these words: PCV's - stay as you are. Be servants of peace. Work at home as you have worked abroad. Humbly, persistently, intelligently. Weep with those who are sorrowful, Care for those who are sick. Serve your wives, serve your husbands, serve your families, serve your neighbors, serve your cities, serve the poor, join others who also serve," said Shriver. "Serve, Serve, Serve. That's the answer, that's the objective, that's the challenge." |
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Story Source: Colby
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Bolivia; Diplomacy; 50th
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