Heidi G. Frontani, Associate Professor of Geography presented a paper on ‘Development through Civic Service: The Peace Corps and National Service Programs in Ghana’ at the Association of American Geographers conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday March 24th. Research for the paper was undertaken jointly with Periclean Scholar, Lauren Taylor (Elon ’10), who is currently studying abroad in Britain.
Volunteers’ memoirs, Peace Corps publications, and interviews were used to examine organizational learning via feedback from volunteers stationed in Ghana from 1961-2007. The effectiveness of the Peace Corps in helping to achieve Ghana’s national development goals was compared with that of Ghanaian service programs, both voluntary and mandatory. The related study is being published in Progress in Development Studies, Vol. 9, Issue 2 (2009), pages 87-99.