Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Description of Service

Description of Peace Corps Service

Kerry C. Piper
Republic of Panama 2008-2010

After a competitive application process stressing technical skills, motivation, adaptability, and cross cultural understanding, Peace Corps invited Ms. Kerry Piper to serve as a Community Environmental Conservation Volunteer in the Central American nation of Panama.

Training

Ms. Piper began an intensive 10-week pre-service training on April 16, 2008 in Santa Clara, a small town located about an hour west of the capital, Panama City. The program consisted of language training, technical skills training, and area studies training. As part of the technical training, she took a lead role in planning a day-long environmental festival. She assisted other trainees in the selection and adaptation of age-appropriate activities for over 250 elementary school children in the training community.

The Pre-Service Training included:

  • 110 hours of formal instruction in Spanish
  • 135 hours of technical training in environmental education and natural resource conservation
  • 190 hours of observation and application of conservation techniques in rural communities across Panama
  • 30 hours of cross-cultural training related to the history, economics and cultural norms of Panama
  • 40 hours of medical, safety and administrative issue training

The In-Service Trainings conducted 4, 6, and 9 months into service included:

  • 6 hours of formal instruction in Spanish
  • 15 hours of project specific and cross-sector technical training
  • 20 hours of training in project management and leadership
  • 10 hours of cross-cultural training
  • 42 hours of training of the trainer including learning theory and nonformal education techniques

Assignment

On June 26, 2008 Ms. Piper completed training and was sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. She was assigned to Cabecera de Cochea, a rural mountain community of 270 people in the western province of Chiriquí approximately 10 hours from Panama City. Her primary assignment involved working with an environmental group to promote ecotourism and reforestation and teaching environmental education to instill an understanding and appreciation of the environment in youth.

On April 20, 2009 Ms. Piper relocated to Vaquilla, a community of 1,000 people in the central province of Coclé, just four hours from Panama City. Her primary assignment here involved creating environmental education tools for teachers and fellow Volunteers and facilitating trainings using these tools. In addition, Ms. Piper developed logos and brochures to promote ecotourism, worked with board members of community groups to strengthen leadership skills, taught courses in computer literacy and English, and served as a regional representative for the Volunteer Advisory Council and Editor-in-Chief of La Vaina, the magazine of Peace Corps Panama.

Agricultores y Conservacionistas Senderos de Volcán Barú

Agricultores y Conservacionistas Senderos de Volcán Barú (ACSVB) is an environmental group dedicated to the conservation of the southern zone of Volcán Barú National Park through reforestation and the promotion of ecotourism. Ms. Piper facilitated a series of seminars to aid group members in the development of leadership, planning, and networking abilities. She worked with group members to design an environmental action plan to improve an office used for tree nursery management and hosting ecotourists and to develop and build sustainable trails in the National Park.

Together, she and ACSVB applied for a grant through the Atlantic Panamanian Mesoamerican Biological Corridor Project (CB-MAP II) and the National Environmental Authority (ANAM). Ms. Piper taught members how to use a GPS and map existing trails, a required component of the grant application. She assisted group members in the planning and realization of tours for ANAM VIPs arriving to assess the strength of the group and the feasibility of the project. The group was awarded $40,000 to fund their project.

Eco-English Course

Ms. Piper developed and certified a three-month, 40-hour Eco-English course through the Ministry of Education which combines environmental education activities with English vocabulary pertinent to the budding ecotourism opportunities in her community. She designed lessons with a variety of interactive activities to engage learners. Twelve dedicated students, ranging in age from 13 to 53, completed all assignments with a high level of accuracy to graduate.

Girl Scout Troop

Seeing the need to engage women in conservation activities from an early age, Ms. Piper formed a Girl Scout troop. Seven girls between the ages of 7-13 attended weekly meetings consistently. She taught environmental education and life skills at each meeting, building self-esteem and empowering young women to act on their own informed decisions.

She was awarded a $418 Volunteer Activities Support and Training (VAST) grant through the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) grant to support her troop. She brought four of her girls to the Annual Girl Scouts National Camp in the province of Coclé focused on HIV/AIDS and the environment. Ms. Piper was responsible for 20 young girls in her group, in addition to her own troop. She facilitated daily camp activities and energizers for over 300 campers. She created a meeting bag filled with supplies to implement a variety of activities to reinforce lessons learned at camp. Before her departure from Cabecera de Cochea, she trained a mother to take over the Girl Scout troop and continue supporting the community’s young women.

Environmental Education Tools

Ms. Piper created an effective and easily applicable cross-reference of over 500 environmental activities in the Environmental Education Activity Guides available to Panamanian educators from their National Environmental Authority. She did so by applying themes to the learning objectives of the national curriculum for Natural Science and Agriculture. She then assigned these themes and a teaching method label to each activity. The thematic index enables a fourth grade teacher to create a unit on organic compost by linking dynamic games to explain the theory with practical experiments to apply them. The teaching methods index allows a first grade teacher, who needs to strengthen the reading skills of her students, to draw from a number of environmental stories.

Due to her close interactions with top Panamanian ministry officials, the cross-reference has been incorporated into teacher trainings on environmental education certified by the Ministry of Education and will be included in the next edition of the Environmental Education Activity Guides.

She also translated and adapted activities from Flying WILD- An Educator's Guide to Celebrating Birds, a program of the Council for Environmental Education to create a guide dedicated to the diversity and conservation of Panama’s avifauna. Ms. Piper promoted this new guide to the National Environmental Authority and other NGO’s in Panama to broaden the scope of programs they currently offer. With a $60 Volunteer Advisory Committee (VAC) grant, she was able to create a kit of all materials needed to facilitate the activities contained in the guide which she used with several youth groups.

Environmental Education Guide and Trainings

Ms. Piper took a lead role in modifying the goals, objectives, and indicators of the Community Environmental Conservation (CEC) Program as a member of the Program Advisory Committee. The Committee decided that a comprehensive manual to guide trainees through Pre-Service Training and help Volunteers to meet the goals and objectives of the CEC Program during their service was essential to the success of both CEC Volunteers and the program.

She drew from her experience teaching in rural Panamanian schools, work with environmental groups, and research from documents published by the North American Association of Environmental Educators, Peace Corps Information Collection and Exchange, and other experts to write chapters on environmental education and conservation in Panama with a fellow Volunteer. She then edited all components and used Adobe InDesign to publish a comprehensive training manual for Peace Corps Panama Trainees and Volunteers. It guides Trainees through the basics of environmental education, instructs them on how to approach Panamanian schools, plan interactive activities with teachers, train teachers in environmental education, build leadership skills in community groups, create environmental action plans, build networks between community groups and government agencies/NGOs, and implement project plans. It also includes anecdotes and case studies from the best practices of current Volunteers and an appendix full supporting documents.

Using the CEC Reference Guide, Ms. Piper facilitated 6 hours of In-Service Training on environmental education for 13 Group 63 CEC Volunteers and 32 hours of Pre-Service Training for 17 Group 65 CEC Trainees. She developed training plans addressing the preparation and professional development needs of environmental educators using Bernice McCarthy’s 4MAT system (motivation, information, practice, application) to engage participants of all learning styles.

The National Authority of the Environment of Coclé invited Ms. Piper to co-facilitate a week-long, 40-hour continuing education seminar for 39 Panamanian teachers. She translated key sections of the environmental education guide for use in the seminar and presented the information with numerous hands-on activities to apply the learned knowledge.

Graphic Design for Ecotourism Groups

Using Adobe Illustrator, Ms. Piper designed logos for five environmental groups from Chiriquí to Colón. These groups have used their logos on letterhead, signs, and polo shirts to promote their projects to other community members, tourists, and agency personnel. She also designed an English-Spanish brochure for Albergues Navas, a bed and breakfast near Omar Torrijos H. National Park in Coclé, which can be found in tourist information centers all over Panama.

Project Management and Leadership

Project Management and Leadership (PML) is a training program to create transformational leaders and strengthen groups. Created by Zach Barricklow and fellow Volunteers in G56, this program has grown to become a cornerstone of many Peace Corps Panama Sectors. Transformational leadership is a process that cultivates the ability to grow and stimulate positive change beginning on a personal level, moving to a group level, continuing to a community level, and eventually extending to an institutional level. Through this process, community members begin to cultivate qualities of a transformational leader.

Ten sessions guide participants through the individual level of influence to the institutional level. In each session, participants practice various skills that they can bring back to their families, groups, and community to become stronger leaders and more successful managers of projects and initiatives.

Training community members, in what at times are abstract topics, is facilitated through the use of a facilitator’s guide and participant’s manual. Ms. Piper revised the "Project Management and Leadership" manual by designing more worksheets and improving the flow of the document. She facilitated a total of 98 hours of Transformational Leadership seminars for 56 participants in her communities and in national seminars.

Secondary Projects: Computer Literacy and English Education

At the request of the director of the General Basic Education Center (CEBG) Vaquilla, Ms. Piper taught 150 hours of computer literacy to 244 elementary school children and 9 educators, during which time they achieved competency in basic computer management, Microsoft Word, and various education software.

Vaquilla receives an average of 50 American tourists a week who arrive for a rural tourism experience. After touring an organic farm, they are treated to a presentation of folkloric dance at the elementary school and lunch in the home of a local family. Few of the tourists speak Spanish.

Ms. Piper taught English classes at the request of the Tourism Group, covering basic conversational phrases, food, family, and home. She also taught classes in the middle school modeled after the successful Eco-English course she developed.

Secondary Projects: Volunteer Advisory Council and La Vaina

The Volunteer Advisory Council (VAC) is a group of Volunteers consisting of a 4-member board of directors and 9 regional representatives who meet once per trimester to discuss issues and concerns facing the approximately 160 Volunteers serving in Peace Corps Panama.

Ms. Piper was elected by her peers as the regional representative for Coclé. During her tenure, she pushed for improved training and response to security incidents and participated in a roundtable discussion with the Country Director, Programming and Training Officer, Safety and Security Coordinator, Training Director, Assistant Training Director, and VAC board of directors.

La Vaina is a 60-page magazine published three times a year by the Volunteer Advisory Council of Peace Corps Panama. La Vaina strives to inspire and entertain rather than simply inform Volunteers. It is distributed to all Volunteers and staff in-country, as well as Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and NGO partners. Volunteers and other readers should be able to pick up an issue and enjoy it a day, month, or even years after, gaining insight into Volunteer life and development work in the field. Each issue of La Vaina has a theme creating a cohesive publication.

Ms. Piper managed three cycles of La Vaina. In the months prior to publication, she solicited articles from Volunteers and others who can shine light on the topic, including Peace Corps staff, agency personnel, and community members. She also solicited artwork highlighting the talents and experiences of Volunteers to illustrate each article. Just prior to the publication of each cycle, she dedicated a full week in the office to edit articles, layout the pages in Microsoft Publisher, and delegate tasks to her assistant editors.

Language Skills

Ms. Piper has achieved an advanced competency level in Spanish during her service and has effectively used Spanish to communicate in all of her different projects and daily social interactions.

Close of Service

Ms. Piper completed her Peace Corps service in Panama on May 25th, 2010.

Pursuant to section 5(f) of the Peace Corps Act 22 U.S.C 2504 (f) as amended, any former volunteer employed by the United States Government following her Peace Corps Volunteer service is entitled to have any period of satisfactory Peace Corps Volunteer service credited for purposes of retirement, seniority, reduction in force, leave and other privileges based on length of federal government service. Peace Corps service shall not be credited toward completion of probationary or trial period or completion of any service requirement for career appointment.

This is to certify in accordance with Executive Order No. 11103 of 10 April 1963, that Kerry Piper served satisfactorily as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Her service in Panama ended on May 25th, 2010. She is therefore eligible to be appointed as a career-conditional employee in the competitive civil service on a non-competitive basis. This benefit under the Executive Order entitlement extends for a period of one year after termination of the Volunteer’s service, except that the employing agency may extend that period for up to three years for a former Volunteer who enters military service, pursues studies at a recognized institution of higher learning, or engages in other activities that, in the view of the appointing authority, warrant extension of the period.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Finishing up

I have one more day of training tomorrow morning. (I leave my hostel at 6am to get into the office, and then leave the office to get into the training community by 8am.) Our regional meeting starts at 9am... yep, won't make that. And the volunteer/pc office part of the regional meeting starts at 11 or 12pm. I might make the end of it. Most important part is that I'll make the beach overnight. lol It should be fun!
Then I get back to my community the next day (wed afternoon), pack up, clean up, have a visitor on sunday to pick up my fridge, and leave sunday afternoon to get back to the city for my language interview monday morning. Oye!!! Then monday/tuesday I have to get a blood test, close out my bank account (I just got my reimbursements deposited, so I've got a wad of money in there right now. Yeah, don't want to think about carrying that cash on me...), meet with everyone under the sun in the office to sign my forms and finnnnnnallllly, catch a plane back to ya'll! (I'll be staying with my host family for my pre-America introduction.)

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Election day

I was on house arrest until 3:30pm today, as all of Panama couldn't leave their houses until they got census-ed. It only happens once every ten years, and in the long run, it's probably more efficient than how the US does it. Maybe not... Anyhow, Isaac and I were staying here at the hostel and we had food stocked up as we couldnt' leave to get any (and no stores would be open anyhow). We started getting hungry and antsy around 11am. I went down to the fridge and found someone ate ALL our food: a tupperware of super delicious ginger pasta with loads of veggies, and another big tupperware of more pasta waiting for fixings. ARGH! So now were were trapped, hungry, and antsy. Luckily we still had some chips and salsa which held us over until we were counted and released later in the afternoon. We beelined it to the grocery store just to get out of the hostel for a bit. I got fruit and yogurt which I had been craving, while Isaac bought and downed a whole liter of chocolate milk.

We went out to dinner around 7pm when all businesses were allowed to be open... only to find that most kept there doors shut. So much for dinner at the good vegetarian restaurant. We still had a good dinner and chatted a whole bunch. It's going to be weird to leave such good friends behind. Isaac and his wife, Melissa, bought a coffee farm in another volunteer couple's site in Cocle. They'll be returning to the states (Vermont) after planting the farm. (They bought 10lbs of coffee seed from me and the president of the coffee group in my site.) Melissa's parents are in DC, and she's going to go to the Outer Banks with some girlfriends from home at some point, so I'll see her around.

I'm working on my presentation for tomorrow. I was just going to set the trainees off with an assignment, but I found a much better way of explaining everything from a chunk of the presentation I did last week. So I'll present that info better and then set em free.

Oh I can't wait to be home!!!! I just want time to learn a ton and have fast internet and libraries and coffee shops to do it in. :) I'm looking at sublets. I think I want to be walking distance to a bar. hehe. I really need to meet people, and I don't want to have to worry about driving and all that.