April 20—24, 2022
India-37 Reunion @ University of Missouri continues “First Goal of Peace Corps”
The India-37 RPCV group meets April 20-24, 2022 at the University of Missouri in Columbia where they first trained in 1966. Since COVID-19 began, they have met by Zoom and formed an legacy fund to provide money for projects similar to their original invitation from India to work in village level food production in West Bengal near Calcutta in1966-68.
The India-37 group first reunited in Washington DC in 2011 and Yucca Valley, CA 2013, leading to a reunion on the UM campus. That was followed by another reunion in Calcutta, India in 2017 where approximately 12 of the original group met. Our legacy brought us back to where our Peace Corps service was born. The seed of “What can we do now 50 years after our service?” sprouted.
The India-37 fund is part of the University of Missouri Foundation. Our RPCV group has donated over $25,000. As a result of discussions with the University, they will be partnering with the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR) to provide scholarships through the Brady and Anne Deaton Institute’s Deaton Scholars Program.
Dr. Brady J. Deaton, former chancellor of the University of Missouri 2004-2013, was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand from 1962-64 and earned a BA from the University of Kentucky in Agricultural Economics in 1966. He had a long career teaching at Virginia Tech and the University of Missouri. He also worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture overseas and later with the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. After working on the Missouri Higher Education Funding Formula Task Force, he was appointed by President Obama to the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD) which advises USAID on topics of food and agriculture in developing countries.
The Deaton Program engages undergraduates, graduates and professional students from every college and discipline at the University of Missouri in the fight against global poverty and hunger. It gives student scholars a platform to:
- explore the value of interdisciplinary teamwork
- understand their individual role in collaborative problem solving and
- empower local action to address global poverty.
Through this process, student scholars gain hands-on experience proposing, funding and implementing their own solutions.
Commemorating our Peace Corps service with a legacy fund to assist future development projects can help defeat global poverty. This legacy fund will normally generate funds for only one contribution per year. However, this April 20-24, four groups of scholars will meet with India-37 members, present their projects and receive aid to carrry them out. Funds will not be used for tuition, housing or other personal costs but instead assist projects with the goal of empowering action against poverty. Scholars will utilize skills obtained from a wide variety of the University of Missouri’s Departments.