A Call to Peace - Civic Enterprises

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Case Study: One Volunteer’s experience leads to a new business ideaTHE STORY OF SAM GOLDMANSam Goldman (Benin 2001-2005) is the founder and CEO of d.light design,an international consumer company whose mission is “to enable householdswithout reliable electricity to attain the same quality of life as those withelectricity.” The company aims to improve the lives of 100 million individuals by2020, beginning by replacing every kerosene lantern with revolutionary energyand lighting solutions that are affordable, durable and energy-efficient.Sam Goldman in Benin. Photo courtesy of NPCA.During Goldman’s Peace Corps service in Guinagourou, Benin, the son of oneof his neighbors was badly burned by a kerosene lamp (one of many thousandsof such accidents around the world). Goldman vowed to find a way to providepeople in the developing world with safer, brighter, and more affordablelighting. Upon his return to the United States, Goldman enrolled in StanfordBusiness School and it was there that d.light design was born.Since founding d.light design in 2007, Goldman has raised more than USD11million in funding, started the India sales and marketing division, and overseen multiple product launches, including the award-winning S250and S10 solar lights. As a result of his leadership, Sam has been selected as an Ashoka Fellow and World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.–Goldman has said that “one of the most amazing phone calls” he has ever received was when the same boy who had been burned by thekerosene fire called from Guinagourou, Benin, to tell him that he had received a d.light lantern through the Peace Corps Volunteer network.“He had gotten my phone number and wanted to call personally to thank me for the light”, Goldman said.Figure 17: Peace Corps’ Influence onVolunteers’ FuturesFigure 18: Since your Peace Corps experiencewhat has been your principal area of work?Sixty percent of RPCVs reported their service influencedtheir choice of career. The careers RPCVs pursuedhave changed a little bit with each generation. In the1960s, when 64 percent reported their service area aseducation, 50 percent went on to pursue careers ineducation after their service. RPCVs from the 1960salso pursued careers in business (23 percent), thenonprofit sector (20 percent), federal, state, or localgovernment (20 percent), healthcare (13 percent), andinternational development (10 percent).Careers in the nonprofit and health care fields haveclimbed the ladder over the decades, with 33 percentof RPCVs working in the nonprofit sector (comparedto only 20 percent in the 1960s) and health carebecoming the third most popular career path for RPCVs,outpacing business and federal/state/local governmentthat were ranked higher among RPCVs of the 1960s.Careers in the government among RPCVs in the 1960soutpace such careers in the 2000s by 20 percent to 14percent, respectively. The most recent decade of RPCVs,for which it is still too soon to know the full directionof their careers, are roughly divided between educationand the nonprofit sector (33 percent each) andhealth care, business, government, and internationaldevelopment (14 percent each).| 22A CALL TO PEACE SEPTEMBER 2011
Confidential. Embargoed until September 20, 2011.More than half (55 percent) of all RPCVs reportedthat they regularly volunteer in their local community,double the national average for volunteering in theUnited States, which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statisticsreports has been at approximately 26 percent over thelast five years. And 39 percent of RPCUs have raisedmoney or other resources to help people abroad.Among RPCVs who say their Peace Corps experienceinfluenced how they spend their leisure time, the effectis slightly greater with nearly 60 percent reportingit influenced them to volunteer again in their localcommunity and 45 percent saying it motivated themto help raise money or resources for the less fortunatearound the world (figure 19).Figure 19: Peace Corps Influence on Volunteering–Case Study: Bringing the Peace Corps homeTHE STORY OF JOHN COYNEJohn Coyne was with the firstgroup of Peace Corps Volunteersto Ethiopia (1962-64) and taughtEnglish at the CommercialSchool in Addis Ababa. Over hiscareer, he worked for the PeaceCorps in Washington, D.C. andas an Associate Peace CorpsDirector in Ethiopia. While inWashington, drawing on variousmodels, he wrote the conceptpaper that outlined a new rolefor Peace Corps Volunteers—theCrisis Corps, later renamed PeaceCorps Response.In 1987 he began publishingthe newsletter RPCV Writers &Readers with another EthiopianPCV, Marian Haley Beil; in 1999the newsletter morphed into thewebsite Peace Corps Writers—which has since morphed intowww.peacecorpsworldwide.com. This is a valuable resourcefor those interested in learning about how Peace Corps Volunteersview the world. John is the co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund—anon-profit foundation to support Third Goal activities of RPCVsJohn Coyne. Photo courtesy of John Coyne.and is a member of the board of Ethiopia & Eritrea RPCVs. He is anoutstanding example of an RPCV who works to share the breadthand depth of the Peace Corps experience, most often by sharingthe wonderful stories of other RPCVs.A CALL TO PEACE SEPTEMBER 201123|
Page 1 and 2: A Call to PeacePerspectives of Volu
Page 3 and 4: TABLE OF CONTENTSIntroduction . . .
Page 5: EXECUTIVE SUMMARYTHE PEACE CORPS EX
Page 9 and 10: WAYS FORWARDIn anticipation of the
Page 11 and 12: A CALL TO PEACEThis report is not a
Page 13 and 14: KEY MOMENTS: PEACE CORPS FOUNDINGOC
Page 15 and 16: Those serving in predominantly Musl
Page 17 and 18: Peace Corps to set the goals of the
Page 19 and 20: TODAY, 22 PERCENT OF ALL PEACE CORP
Page 21 and 22: A TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCEThe over
Page 23: Figure 15: Regions by Decade of Ser
Page 27 and 28: women who reported feeling unsafe a
Page 29 and 30: While RPCVs recognized the need for
Page 31 and 32: Below are core principles and propo
Page 33 and 34: The Peace Corps, Volunteers for Pro
Page 35 and 36: CONCLUSIONThe Peace Corps was a bol
Page 37 and 38: country and how to apply their over
Page 39 and 40: Schwarz, K. (1991). What You Can Do

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