Sierra Leone II: Vassar trip

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Sunday, January 23, 2011

Vassar photo 2 sent by Paul Chantrey

Vassar trip. Shown are Maureen Bonfield and Tony Russell in foreground, Bob Rawson (back to camera), Jack Johnson, Caroline Brown, and Sally Stahlbrodt

Vassar photo 1 sent by Paul Chantrey

Vassar trip. Shown are Bob Rawson, Leilani Marsh, Kyle Ogden, Tony Russell, Maureen Bonfield, Jim Murphy, Sally Stahlbrodt, Caroline Brown, Judy Salisbury

About us...

"Sierra Leone II," a group of sixty men and women, trained together at SUNY, New Paltz, in the summer of 1962, in preparation for Peace Corps service in West Africa. Most trainees were newly-minted liberal arts graduates, drawn from all over the U.S. Despite the fact that few of us had prior teaching experience--or even teacher training--we had been selected to fill teaching slots at secondary schools in Sierra Leone--a country many of us had never heard of prior to receiving our invitation to training. Our project was part of an audacious attempt to help education in Africa leap ahead by preparing African students to attend college and then fill the teaching ranks themselves in vastly-expanded school systems. Walter Carrington was our Project Director, and Mike McCone the Assistant Director, from 1962-63; Don McClure directed the program for the second year of our service.