Event Set for Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center

This year, the Peace Corps commemorates 50 years of promoting peace and friendship around the world.  On March 16, SDSU observes 50 years of service and excellence to the Peace Corps with a celebration at the Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center.

Peace Corps regional recruiter, Amber Lung, is helping to organize the organization's 50th anniversary celebration on campus.

The event will feature panel perspectives from former Peace Corps volunteers, SDSU alumni and the SDSU campus community.  It is free and open to the public.  Organizers hope to attract several hundred of the more than 1,000 SDSU alumni who have served as Peace Corps volunteers over the past half century.

“San Diego State alumni are part of the legacy of Peace Corps service and they have contributed to the success of the organization,” says Amber Lung, a Los Angeles-based regional recruiter for the Peace Corps who is helping to coordinate the March 16 celebration.  “With this event, we want to recognize alumni contributions to the Peace Corps and also what they’ve done upon their return to the local community.”

Lung says the purpose of the event is two-fold; to commemorate the Peace Corps service of SDSU alumni and others from the San Diego community and to invite Aztec alumni and anyone else who might be interested to consider serving.

“There is no upper age limit to being a Peace Corps volunteer,” Lung says, “so we really want to invite alumni who may not have yet served to consider service maybe after they retire or in the future because they can do it at any point.”

Amber Lung (r) discusses the Peace Corps with a prospective recruit at a recent campus job fair.

According to Lung, there are currently 40 SDSU graduates serving as Peace Corps volunteers in countries around the world.  She says SDSU is one of the top campuses in the CSU System for recruiting Peace Corps Volunteers.

“The number of recruits from San Diego State has been increasing over the past few years,” she says. “It’s also a wonderfully diverse campus and the Peace Corps strives to send volunteers overseas who represent the diversity of the United States, so it’s a great campus to work with in that regard as well.”

A Peace Corps exhibit in the SDSU Library will run from March 1 – 31 as will a smaller exhibit in the lobby of the Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center.  After the panel presentation on the 16th, everyone attending the celebration will have a chance to network with Peace Corps volunteers, recruiters and local community leaders.  

For more information and to RSVP for the event, please visit the Peace Corps 50th Anniversary Celebration page at on the Alumni Association’s website.