PEACE CORPS NEWS
VOL. 2 NO. 2
A Special College Supplement
SPRING, 1963
4,000 Volunteers Requested In ’63
Philosophy
Grad Describes
Work In Nepal
(Editor's note: Jim Fisher,
a philosophy graduate of
Princeton, is now teaching
English as a second language
in Nepal. The following let¬
ter describes his work. )
In the middle of final exami¬
nations last Spring I suddenly
found myself forced into decid¬
ing what would happen to me in
the world lying outside of
Princeton, N. J.: I chose what
I later saw advertised as “Land
of Yeti and Everest.”
The day following graduation
I began training an average of
12 hours per day at George
Washington University in Wash¬
ington, D. C. About half the
time was concentrated on lan¬
guage study, the other half in
world affairs, American studies,
and Nepal area studies. The
quality of the training program,
though shoddy in isolated areas,
was surprisingly high, particu¬
larly in language training. The
entire grueling process was made
more pleasant than it would
otherwise have been by the
strong incentive to learn and the
usually boundless enthusiasm of
my fellow trainees, most of
whom were college graduates.
After two months we graduated,
and I was somewhat shocked
when I was asked to give a
commencement address — in
Nepali! This somehow made the
Latin salutatory at Princeton
seem rather pedestrian in com¬
parison.
(See ‘Nepal,’ page 3)
Scholarships,
Jobs Await
Volunteers
More than 700 Peace Corps
Volunteers will complete their
two-year assignments this year.
Next year, some 5,000 will be
back and over the next decade,
50,000 persons will have served.
So far, the number of jobs
and educational opportunities
exceed the number of returnees.
More than 30 universities
have offered over 100 special
scholarships for those who want
to continue their education. In¬
terest in obtaining Volunteers to
teach in America is high. Cali¬
fornia and other state school
systems will credit Peace Corps
teaching experience for teaching
certification.
The U. S. State Department
has agreed that Volunteers who
receive appointments as Foreign
Service Officers will enter at an
advanced level. Both the State
Department and the United
States Information Agency are
making arrangements to inter¬
view interested Volunteers over¬
seas. Other agencies, such as the
Public Health Service, want
Peace Corps veterans.
PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER Jess Stone, a liberal arts graduate of Colorado State, is a community
development worker in the Dominican Republic. Stone and the 145 other Volunteers in the
Dominican Republic are teaching English, sparking self-help school construction and organizing
4-H clubs. They make up the field staff of the first rural extension program the country has
known. Liberal arts graduates will start training in June for Peace Corps community develop¬
ment projects around the world.
Tanganyika Engineers Build Roads
Peace Corps engineers in
Tanganyika are building roads,
constructing bridges, surveying
harbors and harbor facilities,
river crossings, airports and
drainage systems.
“The fact that the job is in
Tanganyika adds a touch of the
unusual, however,” said Art
Young, a Peace Corps engineer.
“More than once surveying
teams have been driven off the
job due to curious elephants
wandering too close for com¬
fort.”
The engineers’ main project is
to build a network of small
farm-to-market roads in even
the most remote agricultural
areas.
Tanganyika’s economy is
based largely on agriculture, yet
only nine per cent of her land
is under cultivation. Lack of
adequate farm-to-market roads
and year-round water supply
limit further expansion.
Working with the engineers
are Peace Corps geologists who
have mapped about 7,500 square
miles. Volunteers have been in
charge of or second in command
in the supervision of almost all
primary road construction in
Tanganyika since they arrived
in October of 1961. They’re
training the Tanganyikans to
take over these jobs when they
leave.
John Leyden, a distinguished
geologist and a member of a
committee that advises the Brit¬
ish Parliament on foreign aid
programs said of the Volunteers:
“They are revealing to the
world what Americans are like.
They exemplify the American
character. They’ve got guts . . .
these boys have got what it
takes. This is the best aid you
have ever given anyone. The
Volunteers don’t know what
can't be done. They simply get
the bridge built or the road
scraped or the mapping done.
A top government official said
to me: T don’t know what we
would have done without
them.’ ”
ANDRE COLPITTS, 23, a Peace Corps Volunteer from Tulsa, Okla.,
teaches English, science and math at a high school in Belize,
British Honduras. Colpitts received his A.B. in biology and philoso¬
phy from Phillips University, Enid, Okla., in 1961. On their arrival,
the 32 Volunteers teaching in British Honduras more than doubled
the number of college graduates in that country.
Liberal Arts
Students Will
Fill Many Jobs
More than 4,000 new Peace
Corps Volunteers will be se¬
lected during the next few
months to serve in 45 developing
nations around the world. Some
of these men and women will be
replacing Volunteers who are
completing their two-year period
of service this year.
Others will be filling com¬
pletely new assignments request¬
ed by countries in Africa, Latin
America, the Near and Far East
and South Asia. Some 300 dif¬
ferent skill areas are represented
in the jobs, most of which will
be filled by the end of 1963.
Opportunities for Americans
to invest their time and talent
in helping people to help them¬
selves are greater now than at
any time in the brief history of
the Peace Corps.
Liberal arts students will teach
elementary or secondary school,
or serve in community develop¬
ment programs, filling many of
these new assignments. Nurses,
engineers, carpenters, mechan¬
ics, farmers, home economists,
lawyers — and many other skills
— are also represented.
To qualify for Peace Corps
service, a person must, of course,
have more than the basic skills
required. This second college
supplement is designed to in¬
form potential Volunteers about
the specific opportunities for
service and the types of Ameri¬
cans needed to fill these assign¬
ments.
“One of the basic decisions
made early in the Peace Corps’
(See ‘4,000,’ page 2)
Free Films,
Filmstrips
Now Available
A 27-minute color film, “The
Peace Corps,” is now available
free to college, civic or church
groups interested in a compre¬
hensive program report on the
Peace Corps.
The 16mm documentary, nar¬
rated by Dave Garroway, in¬
cludes scenes of Volunteers at
work in several countries and an
interview with Director Sargent
Shriver outlining the entire se¬
lection and training process.
Another film produced by
NBC News, “The Peace Corps
in Tanganyika,” is also available
at no cost. Both films may be
booked through regional offices
of Modern Talking Pictures,
Inc., or directly from the Peace
Corps, Office of Public Affairs,
Washington 25, D. C.
Two specialized film strips
outlining work of Volunteers in
medical and agricultural pro¬
grams are also available from
the Washington office.
)N
