My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but, what together
we can do for the freedom of man.
Peace Corps represents some if not all of the best virtues in this society. It stands
for everything that America has ever stood for. It stands for everything we believe in
and hope to achieve in the world.
From an early age, I had an interest in the wider world beyond the boundaries of the United States.
I think there were a number of my generation who were particularly inspired
by President Kennedy and his call to join the Peace Corps.
How many of you who are going to be doctors are willing to spend your days in Ghana - technicians
or engineers? How many of you are willing to work in the foreign service
and spend your lives traveling around the world?
Well, when we arrived, Kennedy was revered and the United States was considered their
closest ally. There was this sense of partnership.
I was so excited. There were 130 people in my group and we landed in Ghana on a bright
and sunny spring day. There were people to welcome us. There was something in the air
that was so different than where I came from.
It felt very nice to be part of a first program. We didn’t have texting, we didn’t have
electricity, we didn’t have phones, we didn’t have cell phones, we didn’t have computers.
And you did not get a chance to go home in two years. It was kind of exciting actually.
While times have changed, the agency’s mission to promote world peace and friendship has not.
The three goals of the Peace Corps are as relevant today as they were in 1961.
Goal 1: to help people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
Goal 2: To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
And of course our Third Goal: to help promote better understanding of other peoples on the
part of Americans.
They share the lives of these people and they share with them skills, knowledge.
They learn the language. They live with them and this is why Peace Corps is unique.
Peace Corps is a very dynamic organization - one that promotes friendship, yet at the same
time, it is about helping people to help themselves.
Understanding is the "peace" in Peace Corps. Because what we are here to do is to make
this exchange. Taking that time out to understand who a person is or what that person wants
to become, you’re building relationships.
You’re not only teaching people at the primary level, you’re empowering people with the
skills for sustainability.
Peace Corps sends Volunteers into host communities to build the bridges of understanding that
will foster friendship, that will foster peace and build the kind of future that we all strive for.
We are not just witnesses to a country’s development, we are participants. We have
taught English to thousands of children and teachers, we have worked alongside farmers
to improve crops, we have taught computer technology powered by solar panels in rural villages,
and we have delivered HIV/AIDS prevention messages to thousands of young adults.
We are on the ground changing lives and changing history.
Be it working in government or any other walk in life, I think it informs your public service.
I think Peace Corps has this impact on you that you carry with you the rest of your life.
The thing that ‘s so exciting to me about Peace Corps really is the transformation that takes place
both in the lives of the volunteers and in the lives of the communities. Maybe there
are nurses who devoted their lives to serving their community because they were touched
by a Peace Corps Volunteer who encouraged them to go on to nursing school. Or maybe
it was a family who were helped by a volunteer who taught them how to make a garden and that
garden enabled their children to grow up healthy and their kids were able to be educated.
Those stories, I think are the things that JFK would be most proud of.
I hope this spirit will grow - that hundreds of others of young Americans and older Americans
will go overseas to show our best side. To show how much we desire to live at peace.
There can be no greater service to our country and no source of pride more real than to be
a member of the Peace Corps of the United States.