2011.07.12: July 12, 2011: Romania RPCV Ehren Schimmel sworn into the Foreign service
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2011.07.12: July 12, 2011: Romania RPCV Ehren Schimmel sworn into the Foreign service
Romania RPCV Ehren Schimmel sworn into the Foreign service
Schimmel says that his interest in foreign policy and relations began when he served with the Peace Corps in Romania in 2001. "I really enjoyed representing the United States and the face of America in the town where I worked and the schools where I taught," Schimmel said. "I taught about American foreign policy, history, culture, and civilization to students from the fifth grade to University level." o Schimmel, the most exciting thing is being able to represent the United States to foreign countries and to conduct and support American foreign policy overseas. "It feels like we are really doing something important," Schimmel said.
Romania RPCV Ehren Schimmel sworn into the Foreign service
Two SKHS Alumni Sworn Into Foreign Service
Ehren Schimmel and Doreen Maroney were sworn into the Foreign service along with 92 others before the July 4 weekend.
By Brooke Constance White
July 12, 2011
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It's not often that two South Kingstown High School Alumni are sworn in as members of the same Foreign Service Officer class with the U.S. Department of State, and much less in the same class.
Doreen (Vaillancourt) Maroney (‘95) and Ehren Schimmel (‘96), were sworn-in with the 161st class on Friday, July 1st along with ninety-two others. Maroney will serve her first tour as Desk Officer for Spain and Portugal in Washington, D.C. while Schimmel will serve his first tour as Consular Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Having both grown up in South Kingstown, they still consider themselves Rhode Islanders at heart even though they don't live here anymore.
"South Kingstown is a place that I always want to go back to and southern RI is definitely where we want to end up, eventually," Maroney said.
Schimmel says that he will always be back here from time to time.
"I'm definitely a Rhode Islander and I grew up in SK since I was three; I taught at URI and spent a lot of summers there even after I moved from the area," he said.
Both Schimmel and Maroney thought it was interesting and coincidental that they were both from SK and in the same foreign service officer class.
"We didn't even know each other during high school, we only had mutual friends; it's a small town and you think you know everyone but I guess you really don't," Maroney said. "I was so proud when I found out that Ehren was in my class too...I mean, two kids from SK; it speaks really well of southern Rhode Island and the education system here."
Schimmel says that his interest in foreign policy and relations began when he served with the Peace Corps in Romania in 2001.
"I really enjoyed representing the United States and the face of America in the town where I worked and the schools where I taught," Schimmel said. "I taught about American foreign policy, history, culture, and civilization to students from the fifth grade to University level."
Maroney's interest stemmed from the fact that her husband has held a position with the foreign service for eight years. When her husband was serving in the Dominican Republic, she worked in the embassy.
"I absolutely loved it and I always thought I wouldn't be qualified to be a foreign service officer because I thought they had to have P.h.D.s or something," she said. "But I was willing to learn whatever I needed to complete the testing program with a high score."
Both say that being a American diplomat is an interesting and very rewarding job.
"As a diplomat, basically you are managing the flow of information between the American embassy and a foreign country's embassy," Maroney said. "We are facilitating the relationship between the United States and another country."
To Schimmel, the most exciting thing is being able to represent the United States to foreign countries and to conduct and support American foreign policy overseas.
"It feels like we are really doing something important," Schimmel said.
Maroney sees her biggest reward as the places and things her children will see that they never would were they to live in the United States all their lives.
"Its a lot of fun to live overseas and to see how other people live their lives and for me the biggest reward has to been to see the opportunities that have been presented to my children," she said. "They are four-years-old and and 16 months and they have seen a lot of interesting things; my son doesn't even care if he can't communicate with his friends in English...they have fun despite the language barrier."
Though there are many rewards, there are also hardships that come with the job. Both Maroney and Schimmel agreed that the hardest thing is living somewhere for only 2-3 years and then moving on.
"You meet some really great people and make great friendships but since you only spend a few years in one place, you have to leave those people eventually," Schimmel said. "Its a negative but also a positive because then you get to meet more great people and experience awesome new things."
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Headlines: July, 2011; Peace Corps Romania; Directory of Romania RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Romania RPCVs; Diplomacy
When this story was posted in November 2011, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| 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: South Kingston Patch
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