by Amy Potthast

In Memorium, Ms. Zhan Yimei – a Peace Corps China Founder

The Peace Corps China community grieves the loss one of the program’s ground breakers, its longest-serving staff member, and a paragon of diplomacy, intercultural communication, and humanity.

Ms. Zhan Yimei passed away last night after a nearly two-year battle with lung cancer. She has been a hero to Peace Corps Volunteers in China since the program launched in 1993.

According to Peace Corps China’s founding country director Dr. Bill Speidel, Ms. Zhan “was an integral part” of Peace Corps China. He said, “I’m not sure whether Peace Corps China would have gone on without her, if she hadn’t been with us. She was a major element in the development of the program. She worked tirelessly,” spending many, many hours establishing and growing the program.

Dr. Speidel called her “one of the finest professionals I’ve worked with throughout my career. She was able to help us solve problems no one else could have. She was a wonderful bridge between our staff and the Chinese bureaucracy; she knew how to handle both. She was a fine interpreter even without preparation. A Jill of all trades who came in handy in so many ways beyond what any job description could capture.”

picture-71 Dr. Speidel cited an example of when the staff experienced problems importing medical supplies for the new program. Ms. Zhan spent a long time negotiating with Chinese officials to make the arrangements possible. During my time in Peace Corps in the late 90’s, I witnessed countless such negotiations. Ms. Zhan could handle any conflict, it seemed, with staggering grace and effectiveness. She was one of the strongest and most even-keeled people I know. She fought doggedly for us, and we truly loved her.

Before joining the staff of Peace Corps China in the spring of 1993, she’d been a teacher in the department of foreign languages at Sichuan Normal University in Chengdu. Sichuan Normal was the original site of Peace Corps China headquarters, and where I was trained in 1998. The university made efforts to get her back to take on a high-ranking position among the administration. Dr. Speidel said, “We can all be grateful that she stayed on as long as she did; longer than 15 years.”

Ms. Zhan is survived by her husband Lin Ping, and her son Zhan Zilin.

Ms. Zhan, we will miss you.

The nonprofit organization Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of China is collecting donations to help her family cover medical bills left in her wake. For information on how to donate, please email me at amy[at]idealist.org.

This month’s The New Service podcast episode (due out mid-January) will feature an interview with current Peace Corps China country director Bonnie Thie. In that conversation — recorded in December — we talk more about Zhan Yimei and her role.

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01.07.09

by Amy Potthast

Are You Public Service?

In an effort to change the image of the government-sector workforce, a new site highlights the stories of public servants.

IAmPublicService.org — a new site sponsored by GovLoop, the social networking site for government employees — is calling for submissions of stories from people who are government workers. Selected stories will be included in a book that will be released with the Inauguration January 20th. The deadline for submissions is Jan. 12th.

The mission of IAmPublicService.org is “is to inform US citizens about the success stories of public sector personnel and to inspire the next generation of public servants. We achieve this mission by highlighting and honoring people who have dedicated their careers to leaving a legacy of effective and efficient government.”

You can follow GovLoop on Twitter.

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12.29.08

by Amy Potthast

Tips for Corps Staff: Beef up Your Own Network

During their term, corps members will look to staff of their service corps for training, coaching and guidance. They may also want to rely on their networks.

This post is for program staff of service corps. (Please send a link to staff in your network if they don’t already read the blog — thanks!)

Your own networks of colleagues, host agency contacts, board of directors, volunteers, funders, and others can play a valuable role in the lives of your corps members. Your own relationships can be helpful in meeting your program’s objectives, as well as expanding your corps members’s professional networks.

While meeting new professionals will give your corps members a leg up in their career transition post-term, recognize that relationship-building happens all year long. Your active support is necessary throughout the term—not just at the end, when career transition training is inevitable.

When possible, bring in alumni and community leaders to meet your corps members and see them at work. Consider the variety of ways you can connect your corps members with alumni and other community leaders:

Early-term gathering introducing current corps members with alumni still in the area
Panel discussions on grad school or professional paths featuring your colleagues with relevant experience
Informal reception bringing your board together with current and former corps members
Skill-building workshops facilitated by the experts in your network
Community service projects, led by corps members, bringing together community leaders, alumni, and others
Graduation event that allows corps members to mingle with the parents of other corps members and host agency staff
Opportunities throughout the term for your corps members to connect with each other, and participants in other corps throughout the region

If your corps does not yet have an organized alumni group, consider establishing one (it can pay off financially, as you probably already know). If you do have a formal or informal alumni network, make sure your corps members know about it throughout the term of service. Some alumni programs have a structured mentoring program that match alums with current members—that is more challenging for smaller programs, but it is something to think about.

Share your knowledge of professional associations that corps members can connect with for the health of their projects and their own professional development, as well as for their career transition. If you have the time to make inroads to any of these groups yourself (i.e. setting up a discounted membership for national service participants), your corps members will thank you.

Continually seek new contacts for yourself, keeping in mind the breadth of needs of your own professional growth, your program, and your current and future corps members.

Develop ties to your local college career centers and look to career staff for support for your corps members seeking specific job search skills.

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12.26.08

by Amy Potthast

Equal Justice Works Launches Podcast on Student Loan Debt

If you are graduating from college soon and worried that your career options are limited due to your staggering student loan burden, you may find some relief.

Partnering with American University’s Washington College of Law, Equal Justice Works has launched its first podcast show on the topic of student debt relief. Equal Justice Works is the organization for public interest law and law schools, and has been a long-time co-sponsor of Idealist’s Graduate Degree Fairs for the Public Good.

One of the biggest hurdles for any person entering a public service career is student loan debt – and law school grads may face the worst of it. In 2007, Congress passed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act (CCRAA) which forgives certain federal student loans for people in qualified public service – after they’ve made 120 (about ten years’ of) loan payments.

But understanding the law, and how it applies to you, is challenging. Equal Justice Works already offers information on its website and blog to help people wade through the morass of complicated fine print. The podcast—The Student Debt Relief Series, available on iTunes—gives you the nuances of the Act in plain English. EJW’s Heather Jarvis, a public interest lawyer herself, knows the law inside and out. She offers answers to some frequently asked (and frequently overlooked) questions about using the Act for people coming out of school in the past couple of years.

Although EJW focuses on law school issues in general, the first podcast episode is clearly accessible to any person pursuing a public service career. Its creators hope to feature a new show monthly on topics like loan repayment assistance programs (including statewide and law school programs, etc.) and the tax implications of the CCRAA.

After the New Year, we’re excited to announce that the EJW blog—led by Aaron Pickering—will join the Idealist Grad School Blog Project.

This blog post was originally published on the Idealist.org homepage blog.

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12.23.08

by Amy Potthast

Corps Finances: Spend Readjustment Allowance Wisely

$6K seems like a lot of money when you’ve been earning $1K —per year.

Peace Corps Volunteers take home about $6,000 at the end of their term — broken into two payments. You may travel with that money, and take an around-the-world kind of flight path home. You earned the money and you deserve to have fun with it if you want.

But if you are coming straight back to the States, haven’t gotten a job lined up, and want to use the money more strategically, consider:

The cost of an apartment in the place where you’d like to live. Triple the monthly rent to estimate how much you’ll have to plunk down for deposit, plus first and last months’s rent — that’s typically what you’ll owe your landlord when you sign the lease if you are going to live alone. If you don’t have a car (and I don’t recommend buying one till you have to, to save money), remember that rent prices tend to be higher on bus and subway lines. (If your rent is $700, plan to use $2100 to get yourself into an apartment. That’s a third of your readjustment allowance—just for the keys to the apartment. Then $700/month thereafter.)
Also consider monthly utilities — which will depend partly on your tastes and the time of year. ($100/month.)
New clothes. The clothes you took with you into Peace Corps may be pretty threadbare by now (and you may have abandoned them overseas). If you disagree, please ask a trusted friend to give you their opinion — sometimes a person can wear an item too long to notice the holes and nubs themselves. Invest in some good interview outfits (think plain and conservative so you can wear them in a variety settings depending on how you accessorize). You may feel rich — but it’s best not to overspend. If you have clothes in storage see if they still fit — it may be more cost effective to have some items “taken in” rather that buy all-new. Although, some basic fashion trends may have changed in the past two years. ($200, if you buy a few good pieces from discount and consignment stores.)
Groceries and transportation costs for the duration of your job search. How much do you spend each month on groceries? Eating out? (You may need to do it once or twice to remember.) If you have a car, how much will you spend for a tune up initially, and gas? If you don’t have a car, how much will you spend on mass transit? ($500 during the first month.)
Finally, think about the things you need to make your job search possible: a cell phone? A laptop? If you have to buy these things, include them in your budget. ($1300, plus monthly internet and phone charges, about $100/month.)
Need new glasses and/or contact lenses? ($200)
Paying for Corps Care—Peace Corps’ health insurance extension? It’s free your first month, and $140 thereafter.
Student loans — deferring was fun while it lasted. (You will also find joy in paying the loan off, but that is for another blog post.) ($300/month)

Taken together, you’ve spent $4600 — just for your first month home and a few essentials. After you’ve taken care of the priorities, save as much as you can: you just don’t know how long the job search may last.

As you can tell, you don’t have a lot of room for shopping sprees, but at least you won’t have to go into debt. If you think that spending for extras on a credit card is a better answer — oh, you’ll be able to pay it off just as soon as you get that job — remember that we are (officially) in a recession, unemployment is high, and you may not want to play Russian roulette with your credit health. Spend what you can pay off right away and you’ll be in good shape.

For ideas about living on the cheap, check out my post on financial management for corps members. Also check out the book Idealist.org and the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) partnered on: Making a Difference: A Guide to Personal Profit in a Nonprofit World.

This blog post has been adapted from a section of the forthcoming Service Corps Companion to the Idealist.org Guide to Nonprofit Careers, due out this coming spring from Idealist.org.

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