Peace Corps director talks volunteerism

Helen Lowman, associate director of the Peace Corps, has recently visited campus to reach out to student organizations in hopes of attracting more students to join the Peace Corps following graduation.

In an interview with the Daily Trojan, Lowman said that she hopes to improve safety for young volunteers who are often hesitant to join the organization in fear of their safety.

The Peace Corps offers four different partnership programs with colleges. The Peace Corps Prep Program allows undergraduate students to train and receive a certificate; the Campus Ambassadors program promotes the Peace Corps on campus; the Fellows Program provides financial incentive for graduate students to join and the Master’s International program allows graduate students to complete two years of work related to their master’s degree.

Currently, USC only offers the Fellows program, but Lowman expressed interest in starting a Peace Corps Prep Program on campus.

The Peace Corps provides opportunities for students from a wide variety of disciplines. Volunteers choose to apply for one of six primary sectors: agriculture, environment, community Economic development, health, education and youth in development.

Lowman herself served in Thailand for three years with the Peace Corps immediately after graduating from college. She served as the associate director for the environmental program in China, the country director for China, the country director for Mongolia and the regional director for operations in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia before assuming her current role.

The Peace Corps was founded by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, with goals to promote international development, civilian diplomacy and world peace. Within the program’s first two years, it attracted over 7,000 volunteers serving in 44 countries. Today, the Peace Corps has programs in 139 countries, with over 200,000 total current and returned volunteers. Most volunteers are recent college graduates.

“Colleges are our most important partners, because the vast majority of our volunteers come directly from college campuses,” Lowman said.

After reports that a substantial amount of American women were sexually abused while volunteering with the Peace Corps, the organization has been plagued with concerns over the safety of its volunteers. In response, Lowman said the Peace Corps launched various reform efforts to ensure the health and safety of volunteers.

“We’ve instituted very strict standards on the development of sites, jobs and communities for our volunteers to keep them safe…and we’ve started an office for the victim’s advocate, which advocates for any volunteer that has been the victim of a crime,” said Lowman. “There is always an inherent risk in the Peace Corps, but we tried to do everything we can to limit that risk.”

Looking forward, one of Lowman’s hopes for the organization is increasing government funding, which would allow the Peace Corps to expand.

“Our hope is that we will be given the funding by Congress to increase our number of volunteers…The demand for Peace Corps is still very high,” Lowman said. “It’s very high from the countries where we work, and its very high from the U.S.