December Graduates

Congratulations to our December graduates:

Chad Anderson, Public Administration and Policy

Teresa Bommarito, Planning

Amanda Plourde Schweikert, Civil Engineering

Graduate Centennial Award

Philip Stevens, a Peace Corps Fellow in Language, Reading and Culture, has been selected to receive the Graduate Centennial Award at the Dec. 2007. Philip is also an AmeriCorps member and has provided his service with both the Ha:San Middle School and with a food security evaluation project with Professor George Frisvold and Anita Fonte in CALS.

The primary purpose for these awards is to recognize outstanding achievement and contributions by Graduate College students and to provide financial assistance and recognition to encourage these students to complete their graduate studies. Each award consists of $500 cash and an engraved plaque.

The awardee is selected based on (1) academic achievements (i.e. scholarships, fellowships, honors); (2) scholarly achievements (i.e. conference papers, research grants, publications); (3) community/campus service including leadership positions; (4) professional affiliations; and (5) experience in the workplace or university.

La Cholla Beach & Community Clean Up

Peace Corps Fellows and AmeriCorps Members headed to La Cholla Beach near Puerto Penasco for a major cleanup of a wetlands area that had never been picked up. Two other student clubs from Natural Resources and the local homeowners association also jumped on board. A total of 90 bags of trash and litter was picked up. Thanks to the UA Corporate Partners grant and to Alyssa Rosemartin who were instrumental in organizing and finding funding for trash bags.

AIDSWALK 2007

Our "Peace Corps - Life is Calling Team" involved RPCV's from the campus and community, friends and AmeriCorps members. Our team of 32 walkers/runners raised $2400, the largest amount of funding for an organization and the fifth largest amount overall. Great teamwork! Executive Director of SAAF, Wendell Hicks, joined us at our December gathering to present us with a plaque recognizing this contribution.

New Peace Corps Campus Recruiter

Congratulations to Lesley Newman, who takes on the UA Campus Recruiter role following Steve Cole's departure to complete his dissertation research in Belize. The Recruiter office ihas moved to the Student Union, 4th Floor, Career Services. She can be contacted at pcorps@ag.arizona.edu or at 520-621-7188. Interested in joining Peace Corps? Call today.

Welcome Fellows 2007-08!

Fifteen first year Fellows have joined us in August 2007.

Welcome new fellows!

 

Fellows were joined by our UA Bringing Service Home AmeriCorps members, the Davidson Elementary Recycling Club, Rincon Heights Neighborhood Association, and the Watershed Management Group in a cleanup of the High School Wash on the southern border of the UA Campus on Saturday, Aug. 25. Some 50 folks scoured the wash and removed 40 large bags of trash and one old sofa. Tucson Clean and Beautiful provided trash bags and gloves. Davidson Elementary provided gloves and snacks for the children. We had a great time, and left the university area neighborhood a little cleaner.

High School Wash Clean Up Crew

 

High School Wash Clean Up

 

UA ALUMNUS: The Magazine of The University of Arizona Alumni Association

Summer 2007/Vol.84/4

Feature article by Margaret Regan on UA Peace Corps Fellows Adam and Stephanie Springer, Courtney Martin, and Amy Myers (pp. 30-35).

Feature on UA Engineers Without Borders (pg. 11) with photos of Fellows Amanda Plourde, Samantha Treese, and John McElligott. This project is a great example of volunteer service by Fellows.

Congratulations!

Christy Trimmer, Fellow in Public Health, who has received an AHEC grant.

Debra Pinkney, August graduate from Family & Consumer Sciences.

Amy Oggel, Former Fellow from Public Health - appointed Director of Social Marketing for Planned Parenthood Arizona.

Monica Mueller, Former Fellow from Public Administration, has been named Executive Director of the Tucson Commission on Women (Aug. 27, 2007)

The Water Management Group was awarded a $15,000 grant to continue their good work in Tucson Neighborhoods, teaching water harvesting methods appropriate to our Sonoran Desert.

Rachel Hill - whose photo of Burkina Faso fishermen mending nets was selected for the 2009 International Calendar.

Susie Quashu, Arid Lands - received one of eleven Fellowships awarded in the US by the Inter-American Foundation for her dissertation research in Chile.

Karyn Fox, Anthropology - was awarded a Fulbright IIE for her dissertation research in Indonesia.

Katie Meehan, Former Fellow in Geography, won a Fulbright-Hays DDRA and also received a NOAO award for her dissertation research on graywater use in Tijuana.

20 May and Aug. 2007 graduates (see Alumni page for details).

Volunteer teams tidy up the desert

The morning sun reflected off Benjamin McDonald's sunglasses as he dragged a plastic bag along the side of a remote highway in the desert. A business graduate student and Peace Corps Fellow, McDonald spent his Saturday morning in the Sonoran desert picking up trash.

McDonald was one of 37 returned Peace Corps volunteers who joined about 200 volunteers from other groups Saturday morning to clean up trash left by undocumented migrants crossing the desert into Southern Arizona from Mexico.

"I wanted to expose myself during my time at the University of Arizona to the issues that affect the local community, and border issues are a significant part of that," McDonald said.

The Arizona Daily Wildcat, pg. 1, [03/06/07] by Claire Conrad
Photograph by Alan Fullmer

Peace Corps service can provide perspective and change the world

I just got back from the capital, and Tous Passe, my puppy, is looking skinny. It worries me.

My neighbor Boumoin feeds her toh, congealed millet porridge. Toh is the starchy base of the Burkinabe diet, and it doesn't seem right for a dog, but Boumoin says that if his own family doesn't eat meat on a daily basis, why should a dog? It's a good point--but why have dogs if you aren't going to take care of them properly, let them waste away and die? I thought about opening a can of tuna for my puppy but then decided that it was silly to feed a dog a 500-franc can of imported tuna when it costs less to treat malaria. But I did cut up a couple of jerky strips and smash them into some rice.

Boumoin got Tous Passe after he and his wife, Pauline, lost their baby girl during a difficult birth. The puppy's name means, "all will pass."

(Read more by clicking on headline.)

Tucson Weekly Guest Commentary by Rachel Hill [2/22/07]

A Small Victory in Darfur

Finally having a day off, a group of us went out to the airport to go jogging. It sounds odd, but leading to the airport is a straight, paved, three-mile stretch of road. Plus, it's outside of town, which means there's not much dust and no one to bother you.

On our way out there, I saw smoke in the distance, but didn't think much about it at the time. The following day, while visiting a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP's), I learned there had been a fire at Otash, another camp for IDPs.

Read more by clicking the headline above. Jeff is an alumnus of the Peace Corps Fellows program who graduated in Public Health in 2005.

Jeffrey T. Silverman, MPH
Fellows: News About Peace Corps Fellows Vol. 15, issue 1, 2007

UA alumni still heavily involved in community development programs

The UA has once again been listed as one of the top 25 producers of Peace Corps volunteers, coming in 24th in their annual report for 2006.

The Peace Corps, Teach for America and AmeriCorps are all community development programs that boast involvement from UA alumni.

Currently, there are 45 UA alumni serving as Peace Corps volunteers, with 1,199 total volunteering with the Peace Corps since it started in 1961. The figure ranks the UA as the No. 18 producer of Peace Corps volunteers of all time.

Steve Cole, the UA Peace Corps representative, said being ranked in the top 25 of Peace Corps producers is a "definite tribute" to the UA.

Andrea Lerch Arizona Daily Wildcat [1/19/07]