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Did you know? The first sea turtles were on Earth 150 million years ago, and ancestors of the turtles in marine waters today entered the ocean 60 million years ago!
Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
* Photo courtesy of Kevin Davidson
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The start of a new school year is a wonderful opportunity to get your students engaged with global issues—those challenges that face the human race and provide us with opportunities to work together to achieve innovative, bold, and lasting solutions. From ending poverty and hunger, to promoting worldwide environmental sustainability, to ensuring universal education, global issues can inspire today’s students to start changing their world for the better, right now.
Cultural awareness and civic literacy are only two of many skills that students need to address global issues, and Coverdell World Wise Schools is proud to provide resources and services that can help to develop these abilities.
In the spotlight this month is a new slide show that follows Peace Corps Volunteer Sarah Klain in her quest to protect Palau’s sea turtle population. There’s also a new podcast and story developed by Lorie Singleton, who movingly portrays her integration into a Slovak community as a Peace Corps Volunteer with a visual disability.
To further promote cultural awareness and civic literacy, connect your students to the rich experiences of a Peace Corps Volunteer serving abroad through the Correspondence Match program, and watch as they become familiar with a new community and its culture.
Finally, use our service learning resources to help your students take action on the global issues that touch them close to home.
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“Chance of a Lifetime in Levoca” is written by Lorie Singleton, who served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Slovakia from 2000 to 2002. Lorie shares her remarkable experience as one of the first Peace Corps Volunteers with a visual disability to serve in Central or Eastern Europe.
Read | Listen |
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For two years, Peace Corps Volunteer Sarah Klain helped lead efforts for sea turtle conservation in the Pacific Island country of Palau. With local partners, she researched and tracked the marine reptiles and encouraged educational efforts to protect turtle populations.
 "Tracking Turtles in the Western Pacific"
Watch slide show
"Ancient Navigators of the Pacific"
Listen | Read |
World Water Monitoring Day
September 18, 2008 |
The international program known as World Water Monitoring Day kicks off on September 18, 2008. This program provides students an opportunity to learn more about the quality of their local water sources as well as the quality of water sources around the world. Bringing awareness to water source protection and the quality of the world's water is the main focus of this program.
Peace Corps Volunteers around the world work with water-related issues on a daily basis. Some of these volunteers have written stories reflecting on the importance of water quality in their lives.
 In “The True Cost of Coffee,” Joan Heberger reflects on the impact the coffee industry has on a community's water in Honduras. Listen | Read | Lesson
Fred Koehler, the author of “Working With Environmental Issues,” writes about the role contaminated water has on the health of a village in Togo. Read | Lesson
Visit the Environment and Health Stories section to read other stories about water.
Listen to more stories and folk tales about water.
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Online Event for High School Students
September 9, 2008
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Volunteering in the Peace Corps is a powerful and unique service-learning opportunity. If you have high school students who are especially interested in the Peace Corps, please invite them to join us for an informative online video and chat presentation to learn more about Peace Corps service, Coverdell World Wise Schools online resources, and things they can do now to help others in their communities and across the globe. The event will take place on Tuesday, September 9 at 5:00 pm.
Students can learn about themselves, other peoples, and other cultures through the Peace Corps. Coverdell World Wise Schools’ service learning resources can help your students explore possibilities for engaging global issues in their own communities. It’s never too early for them to start impacting their world.
During the online video and chat presentation, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers will speak about their overseas experiences and answer questions about living and working abroad. They’ll also share resources that can help students keep up-to-date with Peace Corps.
 Visit the Peace Corps website for more information.
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Wondering how you can ask your own questions of a Peace Corps Volunteer, all year long? Check out the Correspondence Match program!
Q: What’s the most important global issue you encountered as a Peace Corps Volunteer?
A: I would say unemployment. The causes range from lack of a quality education system that results in under-skilled students, to insufficient employment opportunities for those who do have skills.
—Ciara Ginyard, Youth Development Volunteer, Honduras
A: A two-part problem: First, lack of education and a solid education system, and second, lack of infrastructure to support an economy.
—Kyle Jessop, Construction and Skilled Trades Volunteer, Lesotho;
Agribusiness Volunteer, Zambia
A: Making a sustainable, positive difference. What is the impact of my work? Does local impact evolve into global impact? How?
—David Leavitt, Business Advisement Volunteer, Dominican Republic
A: Lack of infrastructure to support an economy. To me, this is the single most important issue before everything else, because everything else depends so heavily on the infrastructure in place to support basic needs.
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Kate Freeman, HIV/AIDS Volunteer, Botswana
A: I’d say misconceptions of Americans and American culture.
—Jean Kern, Education Volunteer, Cape Verde
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The Peace Corps has a dynamic exchange program for U.S. teachers—and you don’t even have to leave your classroom! Connect with a Peace Corps Volunteer serving overseas, communicating through an exchange of letters, stories, pictures, souvenirs, artifacts.
The program enriches classrooms enormously and touches the hearts of students and teachers alike. For no more than a few pennies’ postage, the Correspondence Match program can have a lifelong effect.
Peace Corps Volunteers in countries all over the world are waiting to write to teachers and their classrooms in the United States. Classroom teachers can apply to be matched online.
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