The Making of a Peace Corps Volunteer: From Maine to Thailand

by Roger Parent

Overview

Growing up in the small Acadian French-speaking village of Lille, Maine, learning English as a second language, being in a strong family, training in carpentry with his father, attending the internationally minded St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia – all helped to prepare the author for Peace Corps service. Along with other pioneer volunteers, the author helped to shape the Peace Corps into a vibrant organization.

Selected Chapter Titles:

“Wild Ride in a Helicopter with Sargent Shriver”. “Cussing Sister Simeon in French”; “Spirituality in a Hammock”; “Peace Corps? Christian Brothers? Soldier?”; “What’s a Peace Corps Volunteer?”; “Fried Bananas”; “China Says Peace Corps Volunteers are Spies”; “Becoming the Peace Corps Volunteer I wanted to Be”; “Too Drunk to Ride My Bike”;

These stories are suggestive of the author’s growth and development from a nascent sense of self and consciousness embedded at birth to the end of his service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand 1, 1961 to 1963.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940045211314
Publisher:	Roger Parent
Publication date:	08/10/2013
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	5 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Roger Parent is a Trustee of the South Bend Community School Corporation. He is a founder and President of World Dignity, Inc., a nonprofit organization with programs and activities in Thailand, India, and South Bend, Indiana.

Roger was one of the first Peace Corps Volunteers. He served in Thailand Group 1 for two years ending in August, 1963. He was also Director of the Peace Corps in Haiti and Grenada in the late 1980’s. He served South Bend, Indiana, as Councilman from 1972 to 1979 and as its Mayor from 1980 to 1987.

Roger was born in Lille, Maine. He attended elementary school in Lille, and was salutatorian of his class at Van Buren Boys High School (Maine). He earned a Bachelor degree, Magna Cum Laude, in Economics, from St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, (1961) and a Master’s degree in Education from the University of Notre Dame (1966)

Roger Parent and his spouse Rolande (Ouellette) Parent, (born in Van Buren, Maine) have four children and six grandchildren. They live in South Bend, Indiana.