CNN iReport Features City Year’s New York Corps

Jairo and Brittany

Jairo and Brittany

City Year corps members featured as part of CNN’s series on leaders under 30.

CNN’s Young People Who Rock blogger Nicole Lapin blogs about City Year New York, and will interview two corps members Jairo Estrella and Brittany Maslowsky live online, Friday 12/11 at 3:30 EST.

Do you have questions to ask? Post them as comments!

Read about the experience from the New York Corps member perspective.

add to del.icio.us :: Add to Blinkslist :: add to furl :: Digg it :: add to ma.gnolia :: Stumble It! :: add to simpy :: seed the vine :: :: :: TailRank :: post to facebook

Peace Corps China Director Visits Seattle

Bonnie Thie, country director for Peace Corps’s China program, will speak in Seattle next week.

Thie and the Seattle Regional Recruitment Office director Eileen Conoboy will appear jointly at REI in downtown Seattle on Dec. 15.

Bonnie Thie, the Peace Corps’ country director in China, 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.

Want to attend?

Monday, Dec. 15
6:30 – 8 p.m.
Peace Corps Speakers Series:
A Spotlight on Education Assignments in China
With Visiting Peace Corps Country Director Bonnie Thie
at REI (Flagship Store in Downtown Seattle)
222 Yale Ave. N
Seattle, WA 98109

add to del.icio.us :: Add to Blinkslist :: add to furl :: Digg it :: add to ma.gnolia :: Stumble It! :: add to simpy :: seed the vine :: :: :: TailRank :: post to facebook

RPCVs to March in Inaugural Parade

The National Peace Corps Association, the independent group of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, has been invited to march in the 2009 Inaugural Parade.

RPCVs — specifically members of NPCA — are asked to read the details of what marching will entail before submitting a formal request to march. Marchers will be selected by random lottery. (The NPCA’s Peace Corps Polyglot blog warns interested RPCVs that the flags weigh in at 5 pounds, the day will be long, and the weather may be bad.)

200 RPCVs will represent Peace Corps host countries with flags during the event.

See details here! Deadline to put your name in the mix is Dec. 15.

add to del.icio.us :: Add to Blinkslist :: add to furl :: Digg it :: add to ma.gnolia :: Stumble It! :: add to simpy :: seed the vine :: :: :: TailRank :: post to facebook

Career Podcast, Networking for Nonprofit Careers!

The newest Idealist.org Careers podcast features an interview with my colleague Meg Busse, co-author of the Idealist.org Guide to Nonprofit Careers.

The Guide walks job seekers through all the steps of the nonprofit job search, from describing the nonprofit sector and self-assessment to developing a stellar resume and interview skills. The book is available in two versions — for the first-time job seeker, and for the sector-switcher— for free on our website.

Meg Busse is the Coordinator of High School and College Career Transitions at Idealist. Along with creating resources, she works with career professionals and guidance counselors to connect students with careers in the nonprofit sector.

I interview Meg about Chapter Four of the career guide, “Networking.” We discuss the value of building relationships to begin and sustain a nonprofit career through volunteering and through informational interviews.

Listen now.

add to del.icio.us :: Add to Blinkslist :: add to furl :: Digg it :: add to ma.gnolia :: Stumble It! :: add to simpy :: seed the vine :: :: :: TailRank :: post to facebook

A US Department of Development and Service?

This post was contributed by Put Barber, Idealist’s Senior Researcher.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported today that Timothy Shriver, director of the Special Olympics (and son of Sargeant and Eunice Kennedy Shriver) has proposed that the new Administration create a Federal Department of Development and Service.

“Today, there’s no national voice inviting Americans to serve humanitarian interests around the world and no clear strategy for promoting democracy, economic development, health, education, and human rights,” he writes in The Washington Post. His proposed department would take on these tasks.

Within about an hour of the posting of the report on the Chronicle blog there were four sour hostile comments about “inept government” and “layers of bureaucracy.” Now there’s at least one less grumpy one (by me).

You can see the Chronicle blog here.

You may remember a similar anecdote from the Nonprofit Congress earlier this year. There are certainly some folks ready with a negative word about government who are active in nonprofit work.

What do you think? You can post a comment here for us Idealists to see or join in the more public discussion at the Chronicle website linked above.