Ann Arbor in the spotlight as the Peace Corps turns 50

Detroit -- Fifty years ago today, Alan Guskin stood in the drizzling rain outside the Michigan Union in Ann Arbor along with thousands of other University of Michigan students waiting in line to hear then-presidential candidate and Sen. John F. Kennedy speak.The young senator from Massachusetts surprised the students emerging around 2 a.m. He talked to them about assisting the United States in efforts to build cultural bridges and spread peace throughout the world. It was the beginning of this country's Peace Corps program.

"How many of you who are going to be doctors are willing to spend your days in Ghana?" asked Kennedy. "Technicians or engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives traveling around the world?

… Not merely to serve one year or two years in the service but on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country."

Guskin, then a 23-year-old doctoral student, was so moved by Kennedy's challenge that he wrote a letter to the campus newspaper, the Michigan Daily, urging students to get behind the effort. Guskin also started a campaign on U-M's campus to get 800 students to sign petitions to get Kennedy to commit to organizing the Peace Corps.

"Kennedy had mentioned it on the campuses but he never got a big response," said Guskin, retired president emeritus and distinguished university professor at Antioch University in Seattle. "Because the Michigan Daily had a hookup with the Associated Press, it spread like wildfire all over Michigan. It was the response at Michigan that triggered it (the founding of the Peace Corps program)."

On Nov. 2, just six days before the 1960 general election, Guskin presented the presidential hopeful with the petitions at the Toledo airport. Guskin also talked briefly with Kennedy about starting the program.

"I said, 'Are you really committed to the Peace Corps?'" Guskin recalled during an interview with The News.

"He answered 'until Tuesday (Election Day), this country. After Tuesday, the world.'"

Early volunteer

Kennedy was elected to the White House on Nov. 8, 1960. Three months after taking office, he signed an executive order establishing the Peace Corps Act. Guskin was one of the program's first volunteers, serving as an English professor in Thailand.

Since the program's founding, nearly 200,000 Americans have joined the volunteer organization and served in 139 countries in two-year assignments. They have dug ditches for irrigation systems in Third World countries, taught English and done myriad other jobs.

Volunteers serve for two years. They receive three months of training in their assigned country. They receive a living allowance, vacation time and travel expenses. Participants also get a deferment on student loans.

Volunteers are paid $7,425 once they complete their 27 months of service.

The 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps is being commemorated this week at the University of Michigan.

Life lessons

U-M has continued to play a major role in Peace Corps volunteerism, say the organization's officials.

Since it was established; more than 2,330 U-M alumni have served.

Becoming a Peace Corps volunteer was a lifelong dream for Alexis Guild, a 29-year-old University of Michigan graduate student from San Rafael, Calif.

Guild served in Santa Maria Chiquimla, Guatemala, from January 2007 through April 2009.

"I'd always been interested in international service and serving abroad," said Guild, who is pursuing a master's degree in public policy.

Teaching good habits

During her two-year stint in Guatemala, she taught young students health education. As part of the program, Guild trained teachers on how to instruct young people about healthy living habits such as hand washing and other hygienic practices.

Guild said the goal was to prevent gastrointestinal problems and malnutrition. The experience, Guild said, is "a great way to work and live in a community."

"I got a lot out of it," she said. "I will always feel a deep connection to Guatemala.

"The program enables you to be cross-cultured; it teaches you adoptability, flexibility."

Interest in the Peace Corps remains strong, said Kevin Quigley, president and CEO of the National Peace Corps Association, which represents volunteers, and the Corps remains active in 75 countries.

"It changes the lives of people and has pretty profound implications on our country," Quigley said.

Some Peace Corps alumni include NBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews, who served in Swaziland from 1968-1970, and Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix.

'Gold standard'

Another alum, Lex Rieffel, who served in India in 1967 and now is a resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, remembers his Corps days fondly, but says it may have outlived its usefulness.

"Some of the business models of the Peace Corps can't accomplish everything we are trying to accomplish in the area of international politics," he said.

"We should find ways the United States can make international volunteerism for Americans successful by creating a family of international volunteer programs similar to the volunteer programs that we have domestically."

Nonetheless, he said, the Peace Corps remains the "gold standard."

Carrying the torch

"I envision a Peace Corps that remains vibrant for another 50 years," said Peace Corps Director Aaron Williams, "one that grows, adapts and continues to capture the imagination of Americans."

U-M President Mary Sue Coleman and Williams were expected to make a major announcement today regarding the Peace Corps program.

bwilliams@detnews.com

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