Peace Corps student symposium focuses on international service
To celebrate 50 years since Sen. John F. Kennedy challenged U-M students to dedicate themselves to international service, a student symposium paid homage to the spirit of student activism and involvement at the university.
The Peace Corps Student Symposium was held Oct. 13 at the Michigan Union.
Photo by Scott Galvin, U-M Photo Services.
After Kennedy’s speech on the steps of the Michigan Union on Oct. 14, 1960, U-M graduate student Al Guskin wrote a letter to the Michigan Daily editor to ask students to band together and respond to Kennedy’s challenge. This letter started a chain reaction of events, which led to the Peace Corps being established.
Fifty years later, Guskin was present at the student symposium. “It was electrifying when Kennedy spoke on the steps of the Michigan Union on a night slightly chillier than this,” Guskin says. “And from that experience, U-M students initiated a movement.”
About 250 students registered to attend the symposium. This event also was open to returned Peace Corps volunteers from around the country.
One returned Peace Corps volunteer from Washington State, Joan Cross, was among those present. “I was here 50 years ago when Kennedy spoke; it changed life and inspired me to join the Peace Corps and I’m here because this is a great milestone,” Cross says.
At the symposium, titled “Challenges and Opportunities of International Service,” six students from across the university presented on various topics regarding service-learning and international service. The topics ranged from past experiences of serving abroad to ideas for social entrepreneurship and presentation by self-motivated student leaders.
“I met hundreds of people when I was in India last summer to record a documentary about young people there making a difference,” says Alex O’Dell, a junior in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and one of the student presenters at the symposium. “To me, it was like a moral obligation to tell their amazing stories.”
Gabriel Krieshok, 50th Peace Corps assistant project coordinator, said that the main focus of the symposium was to allow for discussions around the topic of international service among U-M students. After student presentations, there were breakout sessions so students can connect and “see how far we’ve come since 50 years ago, where we are today and where we can go from here.”
