Penn State’s Peace Corps volunteers
UNIVERSITY PARK - Penn
State leads northeastern univer
sities in the number of applicants
seeking volunteer assignment to
the Peace Corps. During fiscal
year 1983, about 85 Penn State
students applied to use their skills
in one of the 60 developing coun
tries where volunteers serve.
About one-third of the 85
received invitations to a country,
says Ben Way, campus recruiter
for the Peace Corps and a graduate
student in agricultural economics.
Another one-third have been
nominated and put into com
petition for assignments. The other
third are still in the initial phases
of applying.
Penn State continues to be a
large supplier of Peace Corps
volunteers for several reasons,
Way commented. The campus is
one of about 60 universities having
a permanent recruiter through
whom students can get in
formation and apply to the
Philadelphia Regional Office.
Penn State has programs in
agriculture, forestry, science,
engineering and health fields, the
areas most needing volunteers.
Counting faculty, staff, and
graduate students and people in
the community there are about 65
former volunteers in the
University Park area. Contact
with a large population of foreign
students, many from less
developed countries where
volunteers serve, is another source
which can generate interest for
international work.
Some recently assigned Penn
State graduates:
Paul Bell, of Upper Darby,
graduated in 1989 with a degree in
business and art, and is now a
volunteer in Tunisia helping a
coastal fisheries cooperative to
better organize marketing and
input purchases.
Katie Hadlock, of Houston, class
of 1983, is teaching secondary level
mathematics in Swaziland, having
had a very strong mathematics
background incorporated into her
administration of justice degree.
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Charles Meade McCoy, of
Boalsburg, class of 1983, is in
volved with fisheries extension
work in Cameroon (West Africa).
He is working with subsistence
farmers, teaching them the
techniques of intensive, small
pond fish culture. His biology
degree provided the necessary
technical background to build upon
during the three months of training
prior to his assignment.
Janet Norem, of Reading, who
graduated in 1982 with an
agronomy degree, is working on a
crop program in the central
African country of Zaire.
John Thompson, of Morrisville,
class of 1982, is in Kenya helping to
develop rural water sources in a
wells construction project. He
qualified with a combination of
practical work experience and a
bachelor of science degree in
geography.
Before becoming a volunteer, a
training program usually takes
about three months. The areas
ephasized are language and
technical and cross-cultural
training. Most of this takes place in
the host country, although certain
phases of technical training may
be done in the United States.
Language training is very in
tensive, with up to nine hours per
day in class during the first four or
five weeks. In many cases the
trainees will be learning
simultaneously the official
language of the country as well as
a local language, such as French
and Lingala in Zaire.
Returned volunteers have put
their skills developed in the Peace
Corps to work in a variety of ways:
Eric Rudyj, now living in
Philadelphia, graduated in 1976
with a forestry degree, and worked
for three years with the Ministry of
Forestry in Thailand. For the past
three years he has been a recruiter
for Peace Corps in the
Philadelphia Regional Office,
which processes Penn State ap
plicants. He plans to return to the
Southeast Asian region in the near
future to continue in forestry
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management.
Jeff Alwang, of Media, class of
1979 in foreign service, worked for
three years in Paraguay trying to
improve rural sanitation and
water delivery systems. He is now
completing his master of science
degree in agricultural economics
at Penn State, and plans to con
tinue in international work,
perhaps after a doctor of
philosophy degree at either Cornell
or Florida.
Gwen and Mike Frazier, of
Pleasant Gap, both earned
masters degrees at Penn State,
and then worked in Honduras from
1975 to 1977. Gwen ran a teacher
training service for home
economics teachers, the first in the
country. Mike was involved with a
teacher training program for
teachers of the blind and retarded,
Sweet corn
NEWARK, DEL. - Planting
sweet com once a week for four
weeks will not always result in a
month-long continuous supply,
says University of Delaware exten
sion agricultural agent Derby
Walker. Strange as it seems, the
com may all be ready for harvest
at about the same time.
The explanation lies in a concept
farmers call “growing degree
days.” To grow to maturity, corn
needs a certain number of warm
days, so it doesn’t grow as quickly
in the spring as it does in the
summer.
So-called 90-day sweet com may
need more than 90 days to mature
if it’s planted early in the season
when the air is still cool. It may
need less than 90 days when the
weather is warm. When planting
are spaced a week apart, each will
mature faster than the previous
one because air and soil will then
be warmer.
There are two ways to ensure
continuous corn, Walker explains.
Plant several varieties that
mature at different rates, from 64
serve around
and developed an instructional
media lab for home economic
teachers. The Fraziers are now
back in the State College area, with
Gwen working on a doctor of
philosophy degree in home
economics education. Mike is
teaching secondary special
education at Bald Eagle Area High
School as well as teaching
photography at the Centre County
Vocational Technical School,
Pleasant Gap, in the evenings.
James Seyler, of Dußois, left
Penn State with a forestry degree
in 1971 and spent the next four
years as a volunteer in the
Republic of Comeroon with the
Ministry of Forestry. In 1976 he
went on to become an assistant
Peace Corps country director for
agriculture and rural development
projects in the Central Afr ican
plantings need proper spacing
to 94 days. Or time the interval
between plantings so that late
planted com won’t catch up to
early-planted com. To make sure
the interval is long enough, don’t
make a second planting until the
com in the initial planting is about
6 inches high and has three leaves.
If the first planting was made
early in the season, two or three
weeks could pass before it’s time
for the second planting. However,
the interval may be reduced to one
or two weeks for subsequent
plantings.
If the weather becomes very hot
and dry later in the summer, your
com will mature faster but the
ears will be smaller and fewer.
If you make a late planting for
harvest in the fall, remember that
it will again take longer for the
crop to mature because of shorter
days and cooler nights. That’s the
time to go back to early-morning
varieties.
All crops grow faster in warm
weather, so be sure that successive
plantings are far enough apart to
avoid an overabundance of
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world
Republic. After IVz years there, he
then filled the same role for
forestry .projects in the West
African ocuntry of Upper Volta, for
another 2M> years. He has now been
living in Kenya for about 2 years,
involved with forestry
management.
Ben Way, the Peace Corps
recruiter at Penn State, is from
Wayne and graduated in 1977 in
environmental resources
management. He served from 1977
to 1981 in the Central African
Republic, working in inland
fisheries.
For more information on the
Peace Corps at Penn State, Ben
Way’s address is 434 Agricultural
Administration Building,
University Park, PA 16802. The
telephone number is 814-863-0249.
produce at one time.
Maturity dates on seed packages
provide a relative indication of
faster and slower maturing
varieties. This information is
useful if you wish to make one
planting of several varieties that
will mature at different times. But
don’t become impatient if your
vegetables take longer than the
package indicates, Walker says.
Mother Nature’s calendar controls
harvest dates, not the calendar on
the wall.
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