What is the Peace Corps?

The Peace Corps is an organization within the US Government, founded in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy and the US Congress through passage of the Peace Corps Act, which established the Peace Corps to promote world peace and friendship.

It sounds so simple, so technical, when phrased that way, and so much of the story, the magic, of the creation of the Peace Corps is lost. When the details are added back in, the story becomes more powerful:

• In earliest hours of October 14, 1960, then-Senator John. F Kennedy was returning to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor after a day of campaigning.
• Upon arriving on campus, his intentions to sleep were quickly postponed when he saw over 10,000 students waiting to hear him speak.
• So, instead of returning to sleep, then-Sen. Kennedy climbed to steps of the Michigan Union, and in the midst of his speech asked the students a simple question that started it all: "How many of you would be willing to serve your country around the world for the cause of peace?"

The answer: quite a few.

For more information on the history of the founding of the Peace Corps, or to read JFK's full speech on that fateful night, please visit the Official Peace Corps Website.

Why check out the Official Peace Corps Website? So, you can apply yourself! And, well, you see, this is my personal blog and is not an official Peace Corps website - explained in more detail here!

What are we doing in China?

To answer this question, we need to look at what the Peace Corps does in every country where Volunteers serve: you've read about the Three Goals above, which form the cornerstone of Peace Corps service, but how does that translate to day-to-day service?

What's a better way to understand the overall scope and mission than with Fast Facts?

As you can see, the work over Peace Corps Volunteers reaches all around the globe, serving over 140 countries in 6 key sectors of service.

Great! But what about China? What about you, Isaac?

I am part of the 23rd group of Volunteers sent to China to work with English education - the way that I view our service here as English teachers is, "Using the skills that you have to make the differences that you can."

We don't aim to supplant, but to supplement.

What this means for a lot of Volunteers is simple: we might not be Volunteers with years of teaching experience, we might have just graduated college with an unrelated major like Chemistry (guilty!), but we all have the valuable asset of fluently speaking English - a skill which we can all bring to meet the needs of students in western China whose education can be supported by interacting and taking classes from a native English speaker.

And so, that's where I'll be: in a classroom in Wuwei, teaching English, or outside of the classroom, interacting with students and conducting secondary projects that seek to improve education, provide more resources, or foster cultural exchange - which is the main goal of this blog, so if you haven't read any of the stories that China, Wuwei and I have to share with you, click here for the newest story, or here to read them all.