The Idealist.org Podcasts

As Peace Corps nears it's 50th Anniversary in 2011, applications are on the rise, fewer Volunteer positions are getting funded, the Senate just confirmed a new agency director, and the number of Peace Corps  alumni is nearing 200,000. Helping connect the dots among the agency's fiscal needs, and Volunteers past, present, and future is the National Peace Corps Association—the independent organization of former Peace Corps Volunteers, known as Returned Peace Corps Volunteers or RPCVs.

The National Peace Corps Association offers the Peace Corps community tools and resources to stay informed and engaged, and advocates for Peace Corps funding and support.

Today’s guests are Erica Burman and Molly Mattesich of the National Peace Corps Association. Erica Burman is the Director of Communications at NPCA, and a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in The Gambia in the late 80s. Molly Mattesich manages the Africa Rural Connect project at NPCA, as well as the Peace Corps Connect online social network. Molly served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali from 2002-2004.

Idealist's Amy Potthast talks with Erica and Molly about NPCA's initiatives like the More Peace Corps Campaign, Africa Rural Connect, the RPCV Mentoring Program, and Global Teachnet. They also talk about the new online social network for the Peace Corps community Peace Corps Connected, the Peace Corps Polyglot blog, and World View magazine. Finally, they discuss the new Peace Corps director — and departing NPCA board member — Aaron Williams, and how online communication tools are changing the Volunteer experience.

Today's guest on The New Service podcast is Aaliyah El-Amin, an alumna of Teach For America’s 2000 Atlanta corps. Teach For America is the national corps of recent college graduates who commit to teach for at least two years in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in expanding educational opportunity. In the 2008-09 school year, 6,200 corps members taught in over 1,600 schools in 29 regions across the country while more than 14,000 Teach For America alumni continue working from inside and outside the field of education for the fundamental changes necessary to ensure educational excellence and equity.
 
In 2000, at age twenty, Aaliyah El-Amin graduated from Davidson College and joined Teach For America to teach 4th and 5th grade in Atlanta, Georgia. It was through her corps experience, that Aaliyah found her calling. During her time in the classroom, Aaliyah received her Masters degree in Elementary Education from the University of Georgia. By the time she was twenty-three, she’d received her principal certification and had become an instructional facilitator at her placement school, providing professional development to veteran staff members. Aaliyah then became the executive director of Teach For America--Charlotte when she twenty-four. She is currently at Harvard University working on her doctorate in Educational Policy and Administration.   

Idealist's Amy Potthast talks with Aaliyah about the impact corps members are having in underserved classrooms across the country, how applicants can demonstrate the qualities Teach For America seeks, and how Teach For America alums are going on to become lifelong leaders in the field of education. They also talk about Aaliyah’s own career path and her personal passion for creating educational equity, and how you can get involved with the movement to end educational inequity whether or not you participate in the corps.

For other service opportunities, including teaching corps, check out The New Service blog from Idealist.org.

June is Pride Month, so The New Service podcast from Idealist.org is taking a closer look at the experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals serving in Peace Corps and AmeriCorps.

Today's guests are lesbian and gay former service corps participants:

• Chad Jeremy, a former AmeriCorps NCCC corps member, currently a training specialist with AmeriCorps NCCC in Perry Point, MD. Chad is an officer with National Service GLOBE, an affinity group for LGBT folks involved with national service.
• Kate Kuykendall, a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (China, 1999-2001); currently a Public Affairs Officer for Peace Corps Los Angeles. Kate's a member of the LGBT Returned Peace Corps Volunteer group.
• Martha Tierney, a former Notre Dame AmeriCorps member, currently a program offer for AmeriCorps National at the Corporation for National and Community Service. Martha is also a National Service GLOBE officer.

The New Service podcast host Amy Potthast speaks with them about agency policies affecting LGBT service—including policies around joining the corps with a same-sex partner; the experience of serving as a lesbian or gay corps member; and opportunities to serve on projects that relate to LGBT issues.

Also check out our interivew with one of the only known transgender Returned Peace Corps Volunteers about his service. (Because of scheduling issues, and as a way to maintain his anonymity, we agreed to a written interview with him.)

Finally, if you are an LGBT individual considering Peace Corps service, register for Kate Kuykendall's online information session "Have Rainbow, Will Travel: The LGBT Experience in the Peace Corps" on Saturday, June 20, 2009. She'll introduce Peace Corps service more specifically, and also address issues of special concern to LGBT folks.

Read the transcript.

Corporate social responsibility and citizen service are increasingly becoming two sides of the same coin, as more business-sector employees and clients demand opportunities to improve their communities as part of their workplace culture. Exemplifying the beneficial opportunities of cross-sector alliances is the new national partnership between the nonprofit Be The Change, Inc., and the business network Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC).

Today’s guests on The New Service podcast from Idealist.og are Be the Change, Inc's Alan Khazei and PwC's Shannon Schuyler.

Alan Khazei is the founder and CEO of Be the Change, Inc, the lead organizer of the Service Nation campaign that has galvanized support throughout the country for passage of the Kennedy Serve America Act. Alan is Co-Founder & former CEO of City Year, the youth service corps that helped to inspire the development of AmeriCorps.

Shannon Schuyler is the Managing Director responsible for PwC's U.S. Corporate Responsibility. As such she is responsible for fostering meaningful partnerships with national non-profits, including a new national relationship with Be the Change, Inc.

The collaboration between Pricewaterhouse Coopers and Be the Change Inc is aimed at inspiring a new era of voluntary citizen service. PwC will also serve as a Lead Sponsor for ServiceNation's participation in the upcoming National Conference on Volunteering and Service. 

Amy Potthast spoke with Alan and Shannon about their evolving partnership, about how corporate responsibility strengthens communities, and about how groups can — and must — come together across sectors to solve our most pressing social problems.

The Resource Center, a website of the Corporation for National and Community Service, is the repository of over 8,000 nodes of training tools, publications, and effective practices to support volunteer programs, nonprofits, and people involved with the AmeriCorps family of programs. The Resource Center–free and accessible to all audience–boasts a 3,000-item lending library as well as a calendar of events of interest to national service programs and nonprofits.

The guests on this New Service podcast are Laura Norvig, the Resource Center's librarian, and Jason Scott, the Training Officer and eLearning Specialist at the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Laura has been with the Resource Center for nearly a decade, manages acquisitions and operations for the Resource Center library, and oversees the taxonomy for the Resource Center website. She follows trends in blogging and collaborative media as well as serves as the “voice” of the Resource Center on social media sites.

Jason is responsible for providing tools, training and information online to national service programs and nonprofits interested in service and volunteering. He has worked for an AmeriCorps State program and started out at CNCS as an AmeriCorps Recruiter before beginning his work in the Office of Leadership Development and Training.  He also served as a VISTA in 1999 then as a VISTA Leader in 2000.

Amy Potthast talks with Laura and Jason about how you can access, benefit from, and contribute to the Resource Center.  Also check out sister websites VISTA Campus (free login required) and EnCorps.

Learn more about national service and the Resource Center on The New Service blog from Idealist.org.

In 2009, hundreds of emerging legal experts across the United States will offer assistance in helping people who face mortgage foreclosure and other  problems through the Equal Justice Works 2009 Summer AmeriCorps program and the one-year AmeriCorps Legal Fellows program.

Every year in this country, four out of five low-income people in need of legal assistance are denied services because of overwhelming case loads at legal services offices and a dire shortage of attorneys who can help them. Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps plays a crucial role in closing the gap between the supply and demand of legal assistance. AmeriCorps attorneys secure affordable housing, lost wages, orders of protection, health care, public benefits, adoption services, and education for low-income and underserved communities.

Our guests on this Idealist.org podcast are Marty Costello, Program Manager, and Cole McMahon, Senior Program Manager, from Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps. They join Idealist's Amy Potthast to talk about the Summer Corps, a 300-hour AmeriCorps Education Award program for law school students, as well as its one-year, full-time AmeriCorps Legal Fellows program.

The Equal Justice Works 2009 Summer Corps application opens today Wednesday, March 18 and closes on Wednesday, April 1; this summer's corps will commit to providing assistance to those individuals and families facing mortgage foreclosure and will set aside Summer Corps positions for 1L and 2L law students working on eligible mortgage foreclosure-related issues. See a list of host sites and learn how to apply.

In exchange for a minimum of 300 hours of service, summer AmeriCorps members earn a $1,000 AmeriCorps Education Award that can be used to pay current educational expenses or qualified student loans. They also gain first-hand experience and legal skills in areas such as client intake, representation, legal research and writing. In 2008, 333 Summer Corps members provided direct legal services to 18,395 low-income individuals. For more information on last year’s program, download the Equal Justice Works 2008 Summer Corps Summary of Accomplishments.

Equal Justice Works blog is part of the Idealist Grad School Blog Project.

Kiff Gallagher is founder of Peacelabs Music and the Music National Service Initiative (MNSI). In 2008, The Aspen Institute named MNSI's MusicianCorps — a developing AmeriCorps-type program that will enable musicians to serve in low-income schools — one of the top ten public policy proposals that would strengthen the United States.

According to The Aspen Institute:

Music reaches youth. … Music education develops habits of self-directed learning that drive lifelong success, and it can inspire community cohesiveness and service. Yet, most schools are experiencing significant cutbacks. Particularly effective at reaching disengaged youth, music can be an effective vehicle for a public service corps that meets social and civic goals.

The MNSI project has recently received $500K from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to pilot a 10-month fellowship program in the Bay Area. After a summer training institute, Fellows would take up their service in public schools, engaging in these kinds of activities. The program is set to launch its first cohort in August 2009.

Idealist's Amy Potthast talks with Kiff Gallagher about the need for music and arts education in the schools, about his role in developing the national service legislation that shaped AmeriCorps in 1993, and the future of the Music National Service Initiative.

Also check out this story on NPR.

Today's guest on The New Service podcast series is Scott Beale, Founder and Executive Director of Atlas Corps, a service and exchange corps for professionals in the NGO sector.  Also known as a "two-way Peace Corps," Atlas Corps brings rising professionals from NGOs in the Global South to the United States to serve for a year; U.S. professionals find opportunities to serve at NGOs in Colombia, India, and soon, elsewhere.  Atlas Corps has just launched recruitment for the 2009-10 fellowship year.

Scott has worked for the U.S. State Department, Governor Tom Carper of Delaware, and as the Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House and Youth Venture (a sister organization of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public).

Idealist's Amy Potthast talks with Scott about the need for professional global exchanges, starting up a new service corps, and his experiences that led to developing Atlas Corps.

In this episode of the The New Service Podcast, Amy speaks with Bonnie Thie, the country director of Peace Corps's China program.

Bonnie served in Peace Corps Afghanistan, where she served for three years in the 1970s. She served 18 years with the Environmental Protection Agency most recently as the director of policy, communications and resource management in the Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds in Washington, D.C. and in the EPA's Seattle Air Quality Office, working with states, tribes and Environment Canada to protect and improve air quality in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.  After attending law school at the University of Oregon, she practiced law in Alaska, first in private practice and then as assistant attorney general for the state of Alaska, working on oil and gas leasing, as well as a range of municipal law and use issues. Her undergraduate degree is in history from the University of Washington, which is currently the #1 producer of Peace Corps volunteers in the nation.

Idealist.org's Amy Potthast — who served in China as Peace Corps Volunteer in the late 1990s — talked with Bonnie about the impact of Peace Corps experience on its Volunteers, the role of a Country Director, and the inevitable cultural confusion that comes with crossing borders.

Amy talked with Bonnie in mid-December. At the time, one of Peace Corps China's founders, Ms. Zhan Yimei, was battling lung cancer from a hospital room in Chengdu, Sichuan. Last week Ms. Zhan lost her battle. Bonnie and Amy talk about Zhan Yimei in the interview; you can read more on The New Service blog about Ms. Zhan's indelible contributions to Peace Corps China.

Learn more about Peace Corps China by reading Returned Volunteer Peter Hessler's account of his years in the program, River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze.

Today we're launching a new podcast series as part of the Idealist.org podcasts. Called "The New Service" podcast, the show will highlight service corps programs, people, and career paths.  It will be included along with the Idealist.org Careers Podcast feed.

Today's guest on The New Service is Colonel Robert L. Gordon, III, Senior Vice President of Civic Leadership at City Year. City Year is a national service program that enables people aged 17-24 make a difference in the lives of children and their communities. Corps members serve in one of 19 cities within the United States and South Africa. City Year is a national partner of AmeriCorps. It also plays a leadership role in the Voices for National Service and Service Nation.