When Peace Corps was first proposed, some in Congress assumed that only men would be volunteers.

The work of these women doesn't end when they return home from overseas, as one goal of the Peace Corps' mission is to help promote a better understanding of other cultures here in the United States.

My mother went into the Peace Corps when she was sixty-eight.

In addition to serving overseas, the Peace Corps' Crisis Corps Volunteers have helped their fellow Americans.

Those memories of living in a developing nation are part of who I am today and give me a profound understanding of the challenges of economic development - an understanding which will make my tenure as Peace Corps director, I hope, a very special one.

The Peace Corps is a sort of Howard Johnson's on the main drag into maturity.