Peace Corps Community in the News
Week of November 30, 2025
Opinion: The love story of Christopher and Betsi Shays. ‘I miss her more than I can ever tell you’ by John Breunig in CT Insider | November 30, 2025.
Christopher Shays (Fiji 1968-70) and I are separated by 300 miles, but I know the thunderclap of an epiphany when I hear it. Connecticut’s Last Republican Congressman makes a noise I haven’t heard from him before. It’s half sigh, half “hah!” We’re talking about the legacy of his wife, Betsi (Fiji 1968-70), an educator who died Nov. 11. He demurs commenting on her classroom successes since “I was never her student.” Then the student decides he would like to change his answer. “You know what? I take that back,” he says from his Maryland home.
Albania’s youth get a GLOW up in STEM skills on PeaceCorps.gov | December 1, 2025.
Despite today’s evolving gender roles, deeply ingrained societal norms still shape the careers Albanian youth pursue. Creating opportunities in which girls can develop an interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)—fields historically dominated by men—may lead to a national shift in the workforce. After community members expressed interest in receiving support to build these skills, Volunteers started a Girls Leading Our World with Code (GLOW Code) camp in 2023. Peace Corps Volunteers have co-facilitated GLOW camps around the world since 1995, but for many Albanian communities, this was their first coding camp experience.
When a Devastating Famine Hit the Village in Niger Where I Volunteered, I Felt Powerless. Then I Read This Book, by Janet Rich Edwards (Niger 1982-84)on People.com | December 1, 2025.
I came home, fell in love, got married, had children and a career. It wasn’t until later, after my daughters left home, while attending a lecture about medieval nuns who crafted illuminated manuscripts, that I knew I wanted to write about a mystic. I had wondered so long about the brave women who dared to speak their experience. As I grew older, I grew more curious about their lives. That’s why I wrote Canticle, a novel about a headstrong mystic and the sisterhood that shelters her. It’s a story with roots in a famine, a book, a child, and the mystery that still makes me wonder.
Former presidential cabinet secretary Elaine Chao talks overcoming obstacles, cultural pride, and career path, by Carolyn Bick in Northwest Asian Weekly | December 2, 2025.
Growing up, Elaine Chao was taught to be proud of her heritage, not ashamed or secretive. “One of the greatest gifts my parents gave their daughters was to have pride in our ethnic heritage. We were never conflicted,” Chao told interviewer Peter Young and attendees at the Committee of 100’s virtual interview event on Nov. 25. “We are both Americans and Chinese. … We’re proud of our Chinese heritage, and we’re proud of our American heritage as well.” Chao is the first Asian American woman to serve in a presidential cabinet, and was the longest-serving cabinet secretary since WWII, holding both Secretary of Labor and Secretary of Transportation positions.
Chicago Poverty Law Powerhouse To Close After 50 Years Of Fighting For Justice, by Richard M. Sullivan in Hoodline | December 2, 2025.
One of Chicago’s best-known anti-poverty legal advocates is planning its final act. The Shriver Center on Poverty Law, a long-running Chicago legal advocacy organization, says it will shut down at the end of 2025. Named for Robert Sargent Shriver, a key figure in the War on Poverty and the Peace Corps, the center has spent more than 50 years shaping litigation and policy in defense of low-income communities. The board identified shrinking earned income and donated revenue as key reasons for the decision to close.
Build up or tear down for American economic development?, by Stephen Gottlieb (Iran 1965-67) on WAMC Northeast Public Radio | December 2, 2025.
Let’s do some comparison. The Biden Approach – if you want to improve America, figure out what’s needed and build it. The Trump Approach – if you want to improve America, destroy something else. Biden passed major legislation to develop new and growing industries. Trump has put all his efforts into throwing tariff barriers in the way of American companies and ignored the need to support growing industry. The Biden approach – if you want to help Americans, build out the services they need. The Trump approach – if you want to help Americans, tear down the services they depend on.
Missouri, local communities should take note about Trump’s moves to cut FEMA aid, by Jay Hasheider in the Columbia Missourian | December 2, 2025.
Alarm bells should be ringing in city halls and county commission offices throughout our country, warning us that we may be a lot more vulnerable to climate disasters than we think. We not only have a federal government that denies the existence of climate change and it’s link to weather disasters, but one that is betting our country’s future on fossil fuel production and use — the root cause of climate change itself. Besides that, this administration has targeted the federal emergency management agency, FEMA, for major reductions to its mission, and even possible elimination.
The Peace Corps and Its Legacy, by Mark Pell in The Provincetown Independent | December 3, 2025.
I am admiring two Norman Rockwell paintings: The Peace Corps in Ethiopia and The Peace Corps (or JFK’s Bold Legacy), both done in 1966. Rockwell’s bright colors and confident faces convey a feeling of forward-looking awareness, fired with ideals. The paintings embody the motto on the Peace Corps website: “Serve Boldly.” I find these images and the history of the Peace Corps inspiring at a time when we need inspiration. For six decades now, the Peace Corps has made friends for America and promoted world peace.
Local Hattiesburg Cafe Savors the Sweetness of Authenticity, by Kristen Kaylor in SM2 | December 3, 2025.
In today’s world, anyone can go anywhere and find a Starbucks, a 7 Brew, or another chain convenience store that sells these products. But when you walk into Hattiesburg’s local Mulukakao, to the smell of fresh coffee beans and the welcoming smiles of the baristas, it becomes more than buying a sweet treat. It’s stepping into an experience made possible by the labor of love. Anjie Price (Nicaragua 2008-11) and her husband Noel Montoya are the owners of Mulukakao, a local coffee and chocolate shop that was born from a dream of more for Matagalpa, a small town in Nicaragua.
Christopher Beardsley enters 2026 race for U.S. Senate in Delaware, by Torie Seagraves in Coast TV | December 3, 2025.
Christopher Beardsley (Rwanda 2016-18) has announced that he will run for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Chris Coons. Beardsley, a Delaware native, said he has served in AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps, was a Fulbright Scholar in South Africa and worked at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The democrat said in his campaign that he is a champion for housing and healthcare as human rights for Delawareans. According to Beardsley’s campaign website, some of his core priorities for the U.S. Senate are housing, healthcare, LGBTQIA+ rights, social security and more.
An Unexpected Memory of Place, by Celeste Hamilton Dennis (Guyana 2003-05) in Pulitzer Center | December 3, 2025.
Guyana was the start of life as I now know it, the place where my husband Craig and I had all of our firsts. We met while both serving as Peace Corps volunteers two decades ago when I’d interrupted a burgeoning career in arts and culture journalism and opted instead to travel the world. My feelings about the institution are complicated, but they are not about this country, which I have loved since my first week there, when, during a blackout, locals kept telling jokes and dancing as the generator hummed and encouraged me to do the same.
HPU Professor Lisa Chuang on Rhetoric, Resilience, and the Future of Communication, by Maika Noyher Astacio Ocasio in The ‘Ohana | December 03, 2025
HPU Associate Professor of Communications and Department Chair for the department of Arts, Communication, Languages, and Media (ACLM) Lisa Chuang (Thailand 2007-09), Ph.D., brings a distinctly multi-faceted background to her teaching. Her journey, which began in classical music…informs her unique perspective on media strategy, mentorship, and the ever-changing digital landscape. A pivotal period in Chuang’s life was her time in the Peace Corps in Thailand, which she credits with completely changing her life and solidifying her desire to teach.
New Novel Takes Different Tack In Exploring Art, by Debra Lawless in The Cape Cod Chronicle | December 03, 2025.
The cover of Rick Fordyce’s (Ghana 1978-80) “Large Room with Paintings: A Novel” shows an open paint tube with reddish orange paint spewing out. There’s something intriguing about that wet gob of paint. In an email interview last week Fordyce, who divides his time between Dennis and Seattle, called his new book “a grand statement, really, about art and mental health. I have been an ‘amateur’ painter all my life, and once accidentally found myself alone in the Impressionist room at the MFA,” that is, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. “This sparked the novel.”
Meeting students where they’re at in North Macedonia, by Samantha K. in PeaceCorps.gov | December 4, 2025.
Prior to the Peace Corps, I worked across Virginia as an outdoor educator and adventure course facilitator, creating accessible programming for students of all ages and abilities, including individuals with special needs. Additionally, I spent many summers working as an aid at a camp for adults and children with physical and mental disabilities, adapting classic camp activities to fit all ability levels. I joined the Peace Corps because I wanted to expand my impact and immerse myself in a new culture. When was invited to serve in North Macedonia, I was excited and curious.
Vallejo mayor also a professor at Pleasant Hill’s Diablo Valley College, by Charleen Earley in East Bay Times | December 4, 2025.
Vallejo Mayor Andrea Sorce (Honduras and El Salvador 2011-14) has never been one to choose the easy route. At 39, she divides her time between shaping young minds as an economics professor at the Pleasant Hill campus of Diablo Valley College (DVC) and steering the city of Vallejo toward transparency, accountability and trust. “It has been a challenge balancing the dual roles, especially because there is a lot of work to do in Vallejo,” said Sorce, who says she wishes she had 40 hours in a day. “But I wouldn’t give up either role. I love them both, and there is so much that is complementary between teaching and serving in elected office.”
Netflix cofounder started his career selling vacuums door-to-door before college—now, his $440 billion streaming giant is buying Warner Bros. and HBO, by Preston Fore in Fortune | December 5, 2025.
Reed Hastings (Swaziland 1983-85) may soon pull off one of the biggest deals in entertainment history. On Thursday, Netflix announced plans to acquire Warner Bros.—home to franchises like Dune, Harry Potter, and DC Universe, along with streamer HBO Max—in a total enterprise value deal of $83 billion. The move is set to cement Netflix as a media juggernaut that now rivals the legacy Hollywood giants it once disrupted. It’s a remarkable trajectory for Netflix’s cofounder, Hastings—a self-made billionaire who found a love for business starting as a teenage door-to-door salesperson.
Who is the CEO of Netflix: Meet Reed Hastings, his partner, parents, children, and more, in Marca | December 5, 2025.
Reed Hastings (Swaziland 1983-85) has been tied to Netflix for so long that it is easy to forget the company started as a small experiment in the late 1990s. Hastings grew up in Boston, born Wilmot Reed Hastings Jr in 1960, in a home where public service and learning were part of daily life. His father worked in the United States Department of Health Education and Welfare. His mother, Joan Amory Loomis, came from a family steeped in academic traditions and the arts. Mathematics drew him in first at Bowdoin College. Computer science followed at Stanford University, where he completed his master’s degree. But instead of heading straight into Silicon Valley, he went in a completely different direction and joined the Peace Corps.
Iran society has transformed but its system not at all, ex-US hostage says, by Negar Mojtahedi in Iran International | December 5, 2025.
Former US diplomat John Limbert (Iran 1964-66), a hostage during the 1979 Tehran embassy takeover, told Eye for Iran that Iran’s society has radically developed in recent decades even as its ruling system has barely changed. “Society appears to me changed a lot. Very different,” Limbert said. “If you look at the government, the ruling apparatus, it’s been remarkable, it’s basically stayed the same. The same little men’s club, elite men’s club has run the country.” “Look at the literacy rate. When we were there, it was about 50 percent. Now it’s well over… ninety five, ninety six.”
Great to hear of contributions to the world via Peace Corps. Thanks, Glen