PEACE CORPS IN THE 21 ST CENTURY: A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS

142American image to international governments. By 2006, the Peace Corps touted itsservice in Muslim countries. Ron Tschetter, during his confirmation hearings as PeaceCorps director stated, “Over 20 percent of all Volunteers are working in predominantlyMuslim countries. I believe that building understanding with the Islamic world at thistime is critically important, and the Peace Corps has the special opportunity to shareknowledge about Americans with the Muslim world through the personal friendships ofVolunteers with their host country families, counterparts and acquaintances.” 255Thefuture of the Peace Corps is headed toward foreign diplomacy by forging relationshipsthat will encourage the safety of Americans.The Crisis Corps is another direction the Peace Corps is headed today. The CrisisCorps, as mentioned in Chapter One, was established in 1996, allowing Returned PeaceCorps Volunteer community to respond when tragedy strikes. The Crisis Corpsvolunteers work on short-term projects, utilizing the skills they learned as Peace Corpsvolunteers. For the first time since 1961, a Peace Corps project asked volunteers to workdomestically in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. As part of FEMAs efforts, 132volunteers were deployed to the Gulf Coast region. 256The Peace Corps is encouragingthe RPCV community to get involved in the Crisis Corps as well as asking them tocontinue to educate people about the Peace Corps and what volunteers do in othercountries. The hope is that as RPCVs talk about the organization, more volunteers willjoin. Volunteers and former volunteers help to remind the American public that thePeace Corps still exists.In 2004, the Peace Corps took another new direction; they sent volunteers toMexico for the first time. Mexico resisted government efforts to send in volunteers