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Peace Corps' 2005 Franklin
H. Williams Awards Ceremony Honors Community Leaders
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WASHINGTON, D.C., June
24, 2005 –
Eleven former Peace Corps volunteers
from across the nation, now contributing domestically as community leaders,
were recognized for their service on June 23 with the Franklin H. Williams
Award at the Paul D. Coverdell Peace Corps Headquarters in Washington,
D.C.
Established in 1999, the Franklin H. Williams Award pays tribute to returned
Peace Corps volunteers of color who continue the Peace Corps mission through
their commitment to community service, and who support the agency’s
third goal of promoting a better understanding of other peoples on the
part of Americans. The award assumes the name of former Peace Corps Regional
Director for Africa and U.S. Ambassador to Ghana, Franklin H. Williams.
Ambassador Williams was instrumental in assisting the first Peace Corps
Director, Sargent Shriver, in advancing the agency’s mission across
the globe.
This year’s keynote speaker was Wilbert Bryant, Counselor
to the Secretary for the White House Initiative on Historically Black
Colleges and Universities (HBCU). In this role, Bryant is responsible
for advising the Secretary of Education on ways to strengthen the nation’s
HBCUs, and on ways to advance the opportunities for HBCUs to participate
in federally supported programs. Bryant also serves as deputy assistant
secretary for higher education programs for the Department of Education.
Leon Harris, anchor for local ABC affiliate WJLA and former CNN anchor,
hosted the event as the master of ceremonies. Peace Corps Deputy Director
Jody Olsen presented the 11 Franklin H. Williams Awards, in addition to
the Director’s Award, which recognizes an individual who has served
the Peace Corps’ mission through a commitment to international development
and cross-cultural understanding. This year's Director's Award went to
Bryant. Finalists for the Franklin H. Williams Award were selected by
the 11 Peace Corps regional recruiting offices across the United States.
The 2005 winners include:
Christopher Aquino
In 1997 Christopher Aquino became one of the first Peace Corps volunteers
to serve in South Africa. Aquino was stationed at a remote school district’s
office where he was responsible for assessing the structure of ten schools
and implementing new initiatives for improvement. In his two years of
work, Aquino organized management conferences for principals and teachers
as well as personally lobbied the provincial head of the educational department
for new resources and reforms.
Since completing his Peace Corps assignment, Aquino has held various positions
in the community development sector. Soon after finishing his master’s
of business administration from E.M. Lyon in France, he accepted a community
building position in his home state of Alaska with Nine Star, a non-profit
group focused on helping people gain job skills and finding employment.
In 2001, the State of Alaska Community-Based Suicide Prevention Program
hired Aquino to manage a grant program for rural Alaskan communities in
support of suicide prevention efforts. Using skills gained as a school
and community resource volunteer in the Peace Corps, he worked with village
project coordinators across the state providing training, support and
technical assistance for Alaska Natives. He is currently pursuing a doctorate
in organizational behavior and serving as a Project Management Consultant
for United Way.
Ambassador Charles Baquet
Former Peace Corps Deputy Director Charles Baquet started in the Peace
Corps as an English and social studies instructor in Somalia from 1965
to 1967. “Teaching with few materials and living with no conveniences
left little time for introspection,” he said of the experience.
Although living conditions as a Peace Corps volunteer were primitive,
Ambassador Baquet has been continuously involved with the agency and civil
service since his return to the United States. After his Peace Corps tour
in Somalia, he became a Foreign Service officer and was posted in Africa
as U.S. Consul General in Cape Town, South Africa. He later served as
U.S. Ambassador to Djibouti from 1991 to 1994. In 1994 he was nominated
by President William Clinton for the position of Peace Corps Deputy Director.
As deputy director, Ambassador Baquet promoted the Peace Corps at many
top colleges and universities, including Xavier University in New Orleans,
where he now serves as Director of International Programs. “The
Peace Corps is a people-to-people agency,” he often tells his students,
“That's what real diplomacy is all about.”
Stefan Cajina
Stefan Cajina originally joined the Peace Corps to connect with his Nicaraguan
roots. Cajina was placed in Honduras, neighboring Nicaragua, where he
spent two years constructing water systems. “The water projects
taught me to appreciate my engineering education, but the Hondurans I
worked with taught me about my family and myself,” Cajina said.
The project worked with small subsistence farming and fishing communities.
Cajina acted as one of five project engineers constructing water systems
to serve nearly 4,000 people. He also taught courses on topographic surveying,
gave presentations on HIV/AIDS prevention and water issues, as well as
worked on educational campaigns against cholera and dengue fever in connection
with the Honduran Ministry of Health.
Cajina currently works for the Department of Health Services in Los Angeles,
Calif. He also volunteers with Outward Bound Adventures which offers outdoor
learning excursions for at-risk urban youth and teaches safety skills
for backcountry travel through the Sierra Club’s Wilderness Travel
Course. He is also active in the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition,
working to make bicycling a more feasible transportation option.
Roland Foulkes
From 1982 to 1984 Roland Foulkes served in Ghana as a field coordinator,
where he conducted healthcare training for indigenous healers. His job
was to contact, interview and select traditional medical practitioners
for training. He also served as a liaison with the Ministry of Health,
Ministry of Cooperatives and Rural Development, and Department of Community
Development, among others.
In 1985, Foulkes published an article in the American Anthropological
Association’s Anthropology Newsletter outlining the needs for a
National Association of Student Anthropologists. Through Foulkes’
leadership, his National Association of Student Anthropologists has become
an international organization. In 1990, Roland became the first student,
and first Black American student of African descent, to sit on the American
Anthropological Association’s Board of Directors. Later, Foulkes
launched the “One Broward” initiative in Broward County, Fla.,
which brings together ethnically diverse groups to improve the community.
He also convinced the county commissioners to designate January as Broward
County Multi-Ethnic Community Month. In addition, Foulkes’ initiative
helped bring the Paul Coverdell World Wise Schools’ Building Bridges:
A Peace Corps Guide to Cross-Cultural Understanding curriculum to Broward
County teachers.
W. Frank Fountain
From 1966 to 1968 W. Frank Fountain accepted a Peace Corps assignment
to West Bengal, India to assist farmers in implementing new techniques
for yielding higher volumes of rice crops. In his second year in India,
Fountain aided a local farmer in growing the largest harvest of rice ever
produced in his district. He also collaborated with the local handicraft
industry to develop new marketing plans to expand their consumer bases.
At the end of his Peace Corps assignment, Fountain was selected to stay
in India for an extra month to pinpoint work sites for impending Peace
Corps volunteers.
In 2004, Fountain was selected as senior vice president of external affairs
and public policy of the Chrysler Group. He serves on numerous Boards
of Directors, including: Charles H. Wright Museum of African American
History, Africare, Detroit Public Schools Board of Education, and the
Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan. Fountain holds a bachelor’s
degree from Hampton University, a master’s in business administration
from the University of Pennsylvania, and an honorary doctorate from Central
Michigan University. Regarding his Peace Corps service, Fountain once
said, “Most of the success that I have experienced throughout my
career can be traced back to the intense, challenging, sometimes painful,
but always inspiring experience in the two years in West Bengal, India.”
Rajeev Goyal
Rajeev Goyal served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal from 2001 to 2003.
His assignment was to manage the production, fundraising and construction
of a clean water system for a community of 100 families. The result was
a plan that is now being used as an outline for future water projects
within Nepal’s Ministry of Science and Technology. The original
system that Goyal produced is now owned by the local community and portions
of the 40,000 liters of drinking water are sold to adjacent communities.
Following his return to the United States, Goyal pursued a law degree
at New York University. As a law student, he initiated two lectures dealing
with human rights abuses and women’s rights in Nepal’s society,
bringing awareness about Nepal to students and the greater community.
Goyal is also the Nepal Project Manager, Secretary and East Coast Fundraiser
for the Living Earth Institute of Seattle, Wash. Last January, Goyal organized
a fundraiser that assemble 250 former Peace Corps volunteers, Nepalese
Americans, and members of the public and raised over $13,500 for five
drinking water projects in Eastern Nepal. To honor him for this achievement,
Goyal was awarded a citation by the Borough President of Brooklyn for
Outstanding Volunteerism. Recently, he was decorated with the America-Nepal
Friendship Society Community Leadership Award.
David Jones
David Jones served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya from 1990-1992,
where he taught at a trade school training business owners and assisting
in the education of community HIV/AIDS health workers. One of his chief
accomplishments was his involvement with a woman’s group that constructed
water jars. “I think the daily interaction that I had with people
was the most rewarding part of the experience,” said Jones, “There
came a time, when I really felt like part of the community and part of
the social development team in the office where I worked.”
Jones now serves as the Director of the Shanti California Peer Educator
Project, a San Francisco-based not-for-profit organization that provides
support services to citizens living with breast cancer and HIV/AIDS. He
previously held positions as program director for training and technical
assistance at Bailey House, Inc. and as an AmeriCorps assistant program
officer at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation. “When I first
told people that I was going into the Peace Corps, so many of them said
that they could never give up two years of their life,’” he
once told a Peace Corps staff member. “But I didn’t give up
anything. I got so much out of Peace Corps. It truly changed my life.”
Juanita Limas
Juanita Limas acted as a community health education volunteer in Nicaragua
from 2000 to 2001. Among her many accomplishments as a Peace Corps volunteer
was the formation of disaster preparedness groups. She also created and
headed a girls’ group which served as a forum for the village girls
to discuss coming of age issues. Limas also planned fundraisers, using
the proceeds to finance trips for the girls to visit neighboring villages
and towns, giving many of them the opportunity to leave their birthplace
for the first time.
Now back in the United States, Limas continues the Peace Corps tradition
by volunteering at the Iowa City Free Medical Clinic, where she educates
the staff about health problems in Central America. Limas also regularly
discusses her Peace Corps experience with various community groups and
schools, including the elementary school students where she teaches Spanish.
She has also spoken at a high school forum on minority professionals,
which she requested be held during Peace Corps week in order to link the
two themes. During Peace Corps week this year she and two other former
volunteers spoke about their experiences on a local radio program.
Charlotte Golar Richie
Charlotte Golar Richie’s spirit of activism was ignited as a Peace
Corps volunteer in Kenya between 1981 and 1983. "After 25 years,
I still value greatly my experience in the U.S. Peace Corps. During my
two years in Kenya, I came to recognize how much I enjoyed working with
people from different backgrounds and making improvements to the community.
Little did I know how well my experience as a volunteer teacher in Kenya
would serve me later in my work,” she said.
In 1994 Richie was elected to office as a Massachusetts state representative,
appointed House Chair of the Joint Committee on Housing and Urban Development
in 1996, and named Chief of Housing for the City of Boston and the Director
of the Department of Neighborhood Development in 1999. Under her leadership,
the Department of Neighborhood Development has increased its diversity
with more women and more people of color in the workforce. She has secured
funding for the construction of new schools and libraries, most notably
a $100 million construction program to build new schools in Boston’s
most ethnically and socio-economically diverse neighborhoods. For her
work in community development, Richie has received over fifteen awards
from local and national organizations, such as the Women’s Institute
for Economic Development, Habitat for Humanity, YWCA, Mass Council of
Human Service Providers and the Latino Health Institute. She is currently
working towards a master’s in business administration from Suffolk
University.
Linda Robinson
As a Peace Corps volunteer working with a district hospital in Senegal
from 1995 to 1997, Linda Robinson noted high levels of albinism in her
travels around the country educating people on malaria, AIDS, and cholera
prevention, along with family planning, breastfeeding promotion, and nutrition
education. Her interest in this condition led to the organization of L’Association
Nationale des Albinos du Senegal (L’ANAS). The seminar initiated
by this association, entitled “A Day in the Life of an Albino,”
resulted in a land donation to L’ANAS by the mayor of Thies, Senegal.
With Robinson’s help, a community center to provide literary classes
and health services to children with albinism was constructed on the donated
land, bearing the name Robinson House Center for Albinos. For her work
in Senegal, Robinson has been featured in AARP magazine, Fifty magazine,
ELLE magazine and has been a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Since returning to Maryland, Robinson has continued her role as a public
servant. She formed Friends of L’ANAS, a committee that collects
donations, sunscreen, hats, and sunglasses for L’ANAS. Currently,
Ms. Robinson is a Medical Librarian at Howard University. Additionally,
she serves as a Charter Docent at the new Reginald
F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture.
Ms. Robinson is Chair of the Community Properties Committee of her neighborhood
organization, the Mt. Holly Community Association, and writes for her
church magazine quarterly, Empowering Disciples. Robinson also gives talks
in her community about her Peace Corps experience to people of all ages
and is currently planning to organize a tour group to visit Senegal. (Linda's
Travelblog to Senegal)
Jay Shah
Jay Shah served in the Peace Corps in Nepal from 2000 to 2002 where his
primary assignment was to instruct third through sixth graders in English,
math and the creative arts. Additionally, Shah often stepped beyond the
boundaries of the classroom by working with local teachers in developing
new curricula, tutoring students and their family members, and serving
as a mentor for local youth.
Upon completion of his Peace Corps service, Shah returned to Colorado
and enrolled in the University of Colorado-Boulder’s environmental
engineering graduate program. Shah currently works as a graduate assistant
in that same department — supporting faculty in developing an undergraduate
focus area that effectively incorporates cross-cultural awareness and
community development components. Beyond campus, where he assists with
recruiting, Shah responds to the call to service by volunteering as a
tutor and mentor with the Tibetan Refugee Resettlement Program in Boulder.
Since 1961, more than 178,000 volunteers have served in the Peace Corps,
working in such diverse fields as education, health, HIV/AIDS education
and prevention, information technology, business development, the environment,
and agriculture. Peace Corps volunteers must be U.S. citizens and at least
18 years of age. Peace Corps service is a 27-month commitment.
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