Focus on America
Peace Corps — 50 Years of Promoting Friendship
In this issue of eJournal USA, we mark the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps with narratives written by past volunteers and we glimpse the future of the Peace Corps in an essay by current Peace Corps Director Aaron S. Williams.
During the 1960 presidential campaign, candidate John F. Kennedy asked a group of U.S. college students, “How many of you who are going to be doctors are willing to spend your days in Ghana? Technicians or engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives traveling around the world?” Within months of taking office in 1961, Kennedy signed an executive order establishing the Peace Corps.
Since then, more than 200,000 Americans have responded to Kennedy’s challenge by serving as Peace Corps volunteers, helping people in 139 countries to raise fish and farm animals, learn English, and build basic water systems. In the process of helping others, these Americans have learned about the world and brought their enhanced understanding of other countries and cultures back to the United States. Download the Electronic Journal.
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