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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (June 21, 1962)
MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD, OREGON THURSDAY. JUNE 21. 1961 A 3 it Peace Corps Grows in Size, Prestige During First Twelve Months Editot'i Note: A v.nr .an Shis month lht Peace Corps launched its program of ending iti program to under-developed countries In the 12 months that have passed, the corps has grown both in site and prestige. The. following dispatch, traces the corps develop ment and explains how the volunteers are being selected. By EDWARD COWAN Washington - il'Pli - This, a remarkable year later, U the Peace Corps: -Road builders in Tanea- nyika, want-ads for basketball coaches and midwives. -A marriage in Ghana and two tragic deaths in Colom bia. Margery Michclmore and Mrs. Janie Fletcher. And the ultimate accolade from the Communist world - a denun ciation by Nikita Khrushchev. -Volunteers in 16 countries; some 1,100 corpsmen now working or in training. An additional 4,000 going into training this summer. It was just a year ago this month that the corps, an ex periment in grass roots, peo ple-to-people assistance, ac cepted its first volunteers. These were 35 young men who now are on duty in the newly independent African nation of Tanganyika. In the 12 months that have passed since that milestone, the corps has grown both in size and prestige. Overcoming initial skepticism, it has now reached the point where Khru shchev has denounced it as an "imperialist" organization. Survives Uproar The corps' African contin gent survived the uproar caused by Margery Michel mores "lost" postcard. And its Washington contingent avoided getting in a tangle with Congress over the case of Mrs. Janie Fletcher of Pan handle. Tex. It was Mrs. Fletcher who complained that - as a 65-year-old-she was dropped as a corps recruit because she re fused to run a mile before breakfast, swim fully clothed with her feet tied, or cover the full obstacle course. Throughout the world men and women - some old, some young - have been exposed to primitive living conditions rl - v y GETS BADGE - Pvt.. Steven D. Miller, 1!), son of the late bandleader. Glen Miller, has a rifle expert badge pinned on by Sgt. Patrick J. Morocco, his platoon commander, at San Diego, Calif. Miller graduated from the Marine Corps Re cruit Depot and will take advanced training at Camp Pendle ton. (UPD -y .J j ;i 2030 Jk Phone j I ' w MAI N Qma 772"6828 j' n El HOME CURED K Either Vi or Whole Sugar Cured 1&Z lb Ground Beef 3 SI Fresh Local Fryers 88c ... 2'i to 2Vj lbs. average-whole or cut-up Gold Cuts 'v.71. 59c ib. Sirloin Steaks 7qrib Full cuts-from grain fed steer beef I WW lb- sWWls Locker Specials 20-lb. MIXED PORK ORDER ORDER 30-lbs. $8.95 $14.95 25-lb. BEEF . ORDER $12.95 PRICES INCLUDE CUTTING AND WRAPPING Open 6 Days 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. Closed Sundays ip I 11 B,it .. ... ..i .i -' i'.is-rza and awkward environments. I needs to be done in rural Two have died - Lawrence I South America." M. Radley, 22, of Chicago, and i in scarchlng for people with David L. Crozier, 23, of West j ,ile SKius specified by the Plains. Mo. They were killed, countries asking for corps in a plane crash in the Co-meni Kelly and his staff must lombian mountains while en ! keep a sharp eye out for other route back to their assign- considerations which might ments in small villages. disqualify a volunteer regard First Marriage i less of his talents. There has been the first j marriage in the corps' young history - that of Roaer Ham ilton, a 21-year-old from Arlington, Va., and Carol Armstrong, 24. of Bala-1 Cynwyd, Pa. Having first met i while training for their as signment, they became man and wife in Ghana, 'where both are teachers. A list of countries to which the corps is sending volun teers reads like a catalogue of exotic places. Volunteers al-' ready are at work in Ghana, i Nigeria, Sierra Leone. Tan-' ganyika. Colombia, Chile, St. i Lucia, the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Brazil, El I Salvador, Venezuela, Jamaica I and Malaya. i Volunteers are soon to be dispatched to Iran, Equador, Peru, the Dominican Repub-I lie, Bolivia, Ceylon, Tunisia, Somalia, Afghanistan, British, Honduras, Cyprus, Ethiopia,! Nepal, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Turkey, the Canieroons, and the Ivory Coast. I Since its inception the corps has been run by R. Sargent Shriver, President Kennedy's brother-in-law. In an inter-1 view, he said the corps is get ting better men and women than he dared hope when he first sr.l to work early in 1061 after Kennedys inaugural. By n.xt September, Shriver said, the corps hopes to have 5,000 volunteers in training or on the job overseas. By one year later the total should be about 10,000. .Biggest Problem According to corps officials. the biggest problem is getting ; enough volunteers with the i right kinds of skills. Needed are 350 combinations of the right skills for the right coun try. Examples: mechanics and metal workers for Peru; gym teachers for Thailand; a cost accountant for Malaya, and architects for Peru. The corps' personnel selec tion specialists must take into account such diverse consider ations as when the volunteer will be available, his age, his specific skills, his foreign language ability, the country or continent he prefers, and other projects for which he qualifies. Now on hand are 10,000 ap plications. Manual sifting of these would be an endless, un certain task. To cull the vol unteers rapidly and effective ly, the corps has turned to modern electronics to help it find someone who might end up working in conditions as primitive as the ages. To do this, the corps is using a high-speed computer which reads a "language" call-1 ed Fortran - a computer jar-; gon understood by the whir-1 ring computer brain and a few experts who instruct it and study the lines and columns of data it prints. ; Racing through thousands of yes -no questions and an swers, the computer stacks each application up against the particular combination of skill vs. country that the corps is trying to fill. Each application gets a numerical score for each job. These scores are printed on a large matrix, a sheet of pa per which is about a yard wide. Each vertical column is a job; each horizontal line an applicant. Reading across, a technician such as petite Gail Switzcrl ; can see those jobs for which j an applicant is well qualified, I those for which his qualifica tions are so-so, and those for, ' which he won't do at all. I Data Translated The computer can score the t applicants because it has been told some 300 items of infor mation about each. This data has been translated into For tran for the computer by a group of experts headed by ; Charles Consolvo. a 23-year-old airman on loan to the Peace Corps from the Air Force. Consolvo and Miss Switzer work for Dr. E. Lowell Kelly, chief of the corps' selection division. A 56-year-old expert on selection procedures, Kelly is on leave froom his post as chairman of the Psychology department at the University of Michigan. Although proud of the mod ern, high-speed techniques that his staff uses, Kelly took pains in an interview to em phasize that the final selection is far from a straight mechan ical process. As he said, "Who is suitable to be a Peace Corps volunteer is a judgment made by human beings who are professional qualified peo ple .'' Kelly keeps a special eye out for applicants with a rural background and farm skills. A bov who knows Spanish and crop rotation would be more valuable to the corps than a triple threat halfback would be to a football team. In Shrivcr's words. "Every thing done in rural America A few applications have come from people "trying to get away" - from creditors, a nagging wife or some other personal problem. Automatic ally rejected are persons lack ing U. S. citizenship, those with dependents under 18, and applicants themselves un der IS. The corps is not interested in what it calls "non-function-1" characteristics - political affiliation, color, religion and national origin. Each applicant Is required to submit at least six character references. These references are sent a confidential ques- tionaire which asks about the applicant's job competence, emotional maturity, ability to work with others, special skills and character. In an introductory message on the questionaire, Shriver appeals for "a candid expres sion of opinion" and offers this assurance: "No candidate will be elinv inated on the basis of a single negative rating." Kelly, as selection director, has found that "people do a surprisingly thorough job." Applicants usually give the names of people they think will give them a good refer ence. But one young man, who was under 21 and needed par ental consent, was crossed up by his own father. The father, who apparently didn't disapprove of his son nearly as much as he did of his joining the Peace Corps, wrote that his boy was a "lazy no good." It worked. OPEN MONDAY AND FRIDAY EVENINGS 'TIL 9 2(0.2 em. it. M&IEIEEIEII& fi W CUE. lit. space Z A llffigiraiw inn 01' vlnmir i i ! ; " w a i Now you can ttors 707 lbs. of food , s in the same floor space required for a " conventional-tpe freezer that stores Vi only 560 lbs. 14.2 cu. ft. More Storage R5s53PttT1 New foam-type insulation is so much mora pfSESIQfq efficient than tha old, thick, batMypa material KSstgTl that the a s can be thinner thus affording I ld3jl" much mora storage in sama-six cabinet. Save Floor Space With TnnnM wall CdDLUDSIPdDTr u u Smooth, rust-resistant aluminum interior. Big basket for storing popular items. 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