As country singer Merle Haggard sang “If you don’t love it, leave it” over and over again in his 1970 hit “The Fightin’ Side of Me,” the Peace Corps released a recruitment poster encouraging the very same thing. Americans could improve their country by leaving it.
Everyone thinks of the good Peace Corps volunteers do where they serve. Just as important is what they bring back from their time away. The Peace Corps’ on-the-job skills training prepares the volunteers to be diplomats, entrepreneurs, teachers, public health workers, and many other occupations. When they return home, they invest what they learned back into their communities.
Peace Corps lessons
Thousands of leaders credit their Peace Corps service for finding their passion and preparing them for their future endeavors, including diplomats, writers, entrepreneurs, public health workers, and so on. Some are household names, including Chris Matthews, Donna Shalala, Chris Dodd, Joe Kennedy III, Bob Villa, and Paul Theroux. Netflix co-founder and philanthropist, Reed Hastings, attributes his entrepreneurial spirit, in part, to his time serving in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) from 1983 to 85.
Likewise, countless educators have drawn on their volunteer experiences to enhance the learning environment for their students at home. The 2018 National Teacher of the Year, Mandy Manning (Armenia, 1999 to 2001), credits the Peace Corps with giving her the skills and experiences to land her first teaching job in Texas.
Furthermore, there is an army of Peace Corps alumni who continue to serve their fellow Americans through civil government service and public office. Their time in the Peace Corps have armed them with the unique perspectives of community-level development, which immeasurably enhances government investment and service delivery.
Community-led assistance
In addition, the Peace Corps “template” of service has inspired scores of other volunteer organizations (AmeriCorps, Teach for America, etc.), and development agencies such as USAID have begun prioritizing the community-led & bottom-up approaches to international assistance long embraced by the Peace Corps and can be further deployed to help address the many other critical social issues that are affecting countless people here at home.
Moreover, many Peace Corps alumni groups actively seek creative solutions to complex problems, both at home and abroad. Under the umbrella of the National Peace Corps Association, they have organized into nonprofits, foundations, and civic groups in order to support their countries of service, provide assistance during disasters, and serve their communities at home.
When the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, in 2021, the Peace Corps Community for Refugees found homes for Afghani refugees in the United States. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the RPCV Alliance for Ukraine has continuously awarded small grants to provide targeted humanitarian relief. When a volcano erupted in the middle of the Kingdom of Tonga in 2022, Friends of Tonga Inc. was the first nonprofit to respond and has since coordinated over $500,000 in targeted disaster-relief efforts.
There is even a local Pittsburgh Area Peace Corps Association, whose members continue to contribute to volunteer efforts both locally and internationally. Such initiatives complement and enhance America’s relations with our allies, regardless of which political party heads our government.
An effective investment
The Peace Corps is working in over 60 countries, fulfilling its mission of promoting worldwide friendship and peace. Since its inception, nearly a quarter of a million Americans have served as Volunteers, in over 143 countries. To date, nearly 700 Pittsburghers, and well over 8,000 Pennsylvanians, have followed this path, including former Pittsburgh mayor Thomas J. Murphy Jr. (Paraguay 1970–72) and former Governor Tom Wolf (India 1969–71).
With a looming budget fight, in Congress, the funding of the Peace Corps should not be a partisan issue. It currently costs each Americans a mere $1.30 annually — the price of a dozen eggs — to fund the entirety of Peace Corps operations around the world. Over a dozen new countries have requested Peace Corps support, but without the continued support of Congress, this cost-effective program that amplifies American soft diplomacy will likely remain plateaued or even reduced in the face of inflation. With volunteers finally returning to the field after their worldwide recall during the pandemic, we urgently need to renew and reauthorize our commitment to promoting American ideals.
Let us continue to provide a beacon of democratic principles and build bridges, where so many have eroded, to remote corners of the world through the next generation of Peace Corps Volunteers.
Dan Baker is the President and CEO for the National Peace Corps Association. He served with the Peace Corps in Bolivia, Timor-Leste and other nations from 1999 to 2016. Michael P. Hassett, a Pittsburgh native who graduated from La Roche College, is the president and co-founder of Friends of Tonga. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Kingdom of Tonga from 2012 to 14. His previous article was “Have you heard of Tonga? Why it matters to U.S. interests.”
First Published: September 15, 2023, 1:39 p.m.
