Kindergartners locate Burkina Faso on a map and send questions via instant message to a Peace Corps Volunteer living there. High school students raise money to provide computers for a classroom in El Salvador. ESOL students interact with a returned Volunteer and share stories of adapting to a new language and culture. These are just a few of the exciting educational experiences made possible by Coverdell World Wise Schools’ Correspondence Match and Speakers Match programs!

To bring Peace Corps Volunteers’ stories to U.S. teachers and students, Correspondence Match connects classrooms with Volunteers serving overseas, while Speakers Match brings returned Peace Corps Volunteers into schools across the country. Every year, these programs connect thousands of students with Peace Corps Volunteers, providing rich exchanges of culture, ideas, and experiences. This month, we bring you new tips to help you make use of these programs, and highlight some inspiring stories from matches around the country.

Bring the world to your students by inviting a returned Peace Corps Volunteer to visit your classroom or community group. The Speakers Match program provides a fascinating way for students to learn about another culture and hear an inspiring story of service. Volunteers share photographs, artifacts, music, language, and stories. Their work in education, health, environmental issues, agriculture, and business can help your students learn about global issues as well as the geography and culture of another country.

World Wise Schools is proud to unveil our new Speakers Match Handbook! Rich with resources for educators and Peace Corps Volunteer speakers, we hope it will help you make the Speakers Match program enjoyable and useful for your students. The handbook provides teaching suggestions to connect your Speakers Match activity with Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, Math, World Languages, and other subjects. It also includes suggestions for communication between the speaker and teacher, and ideas for pre- and post-visit activities to extend the learning of the speaker’s visit.

If you are not already taking advantage of these unique programs, we hope you will consider using Speakers Match and Correspondence Match, and encourage your colleagues to do so! Please keep in touch with World Wise Schools and let us know how the programs are working for you. Email wwsinfo@peacecorps.gov and tell us about your experiences. We welcome your stories and your feedback!

Q: What has been your favorite part of being matched in the Correspondence Match program?

A: My teacher and I held a Skype video session between my host family and her class. The children finally “met” the people they had been learning about. My two host brothers are around the same grade, so the class was really able to connect.

To celebrate the event, one of the children’s parents made traditional food from my Peace Corps country – khachapuri! Thanks to technology and the World Wise Schools Correspondence Match program, these children had an unforgettable experience.

Jefferson Sommers II, English Education Peace Corps Volunteer, Georgia

A: I love the professional connection. It helps me remember that what I do makes a bigger impact, and helps put the work into a larger context.

Jenneffer Sixkiller, Information Technology Peace Corps Volunteer, South Africa

More responses

Did you know that there are nearly 12,000 returned Peace Corps Volunteer speakers available, representing 111 countries around the world?

Invite one to your classroom soon!