This time, ask Micronesia what it wants
Ten years ago, I went to Yap as a Peace Corps Response volunteer, bringing my marketing communications experience to help prepare for the 2018 Micronesian Games, the first to be held there since the Games began in 1969.
Just a few months later, a retinal hemorrhage sent me to Los Angeles for surgery and led the Peace Corps to medically separate me.
So I did something that probably wasn't in anybody's Peace Corps manual: I returned to Yap on my own, and what was supposed to be a short assignment became five years of my life.
That experience is on my mind because the Peace Corps is considering a return to the FSM.
On the sidelines of the 55th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in Koror on Sept. 2, Wesley W. Simina, Surangel Whipps Jr. and Hilda Heine, presidents of the FSM, Palau and the Marshall Islands, respectively, along with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau signed a letter of intent to establish a new North Pacific Peace Corps program.
For the FSM, this isn't quite a homecoming yet. The Peace Corps must first complete its country assessment, examining health and safety, available resources and whether proposed programs are a good fit.
That health-and-safety part certainly caught my attention.
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The Peace Corps served in Micronesia and Palau for more than half a century, beginning in 1966. When the program was phased out in 2018, the agency cited geographic distances, transportation, medical care and recurring staff vacancies among the challenges.
I understood the medical part better than most, although volunteers assigned to Yap’s outer islands had even fewer medical and transportation options.
But the Peace Corps now has an opportunity to consider another question: What should Peace Corps volunteers actually be doing in Micronesia in the 21st century?
For many years, traditional Peace Corps volunteers in the FSM and Palau were closely associated with education, particularly teaching English. The final group serving in the FSM in 2018 was primarily teaching in elementary schools.
There may still be an important role for that work. English proficiency remains important in education and employment, and Micronesian schools face teacher shortages. Palau, where Peace Corps volunteers have already returned, specifically requested volunteers to work on English and literacy in elementary schools.
But Micronesia in 2026 isn't Micronesia in 1966—or even Micronesia in 2016.
That's why I hope the discussion about bringing the Peace Corps back includes more than how many young volunteers can be placed in classrooms. It should also include Peace Corps Response volunteers.
Response volunteers are often older and come with years—often decades—of professional experience. Their assignments are generally shorter and designed around a particular need identified by a host organization.
That's the program that sent me to Yap.
One of the organizers—himself a former Peace Corps volunteer—who was involved in managing the MicroGames had asked the local Peace Corps staff for a marketing expert. Once in Yap, I worked with local organizations, including the Yap Visitors Bureau, that wanted what I had to offer.
And there's an important distinction in that sentence: need and want are not the same thing. The distinction matters.
It's easy for outsiders to look at a community, study the statistics and announce what that community needs: education, healthcare, economic development, better infrastructure, more jobs.
They may even be right.
But what do the people who live there want?
What do they want to accomplish? Where do they want outside expertise—and where don't they? What do they consider a priority?
Those questions should come before deciding which volunteers to recruit.
The FSM and other Micronesian nations face shortages of skilled workers in a number of fields, compounded by decades of outmigration. Depending on what individual communities want from the Peace Corps, experienced volunteers could work alongside local professionals in healthcare, tourism, business, technology, agriculture, project management and other fields.
Americans have a bad habit of arriving in other countries with solutions already packed in suitcases. The Peace Corps is at its best when it does the opposite.
Ask first what each individual location wants. Don't assume the answer will be the same everywhere. Then find people whose skills match those answers.
Some may be 22-year-olds beginning a two-year assignment that will change the course of their own lives. There is tremendous value in that traditional Peace Corps experience. Living in a community, learning its language and culture and becoming part of everyday life accomplishes something a short-term consultant never can.
But some volunteers might be 45. Or 60. Or 70. I was 69 when I landed in Yap.
They may have spent 30 years as nurses, engineers, accountants, teachers, business owners or project managers. They may no longer be looking to begin a career. They may be looking for a meaningful way to share their expertise.
Micronesia could benefit from both. And so could the volunteers.
That's another thing we sometimes get backward when we talk about the Peace Corps. The name suggests Americans go abroad to provide something to somebody else.
Anyone who has lived in another culture for a meaningful length of time knows the exchange isn't nearly that one-sided. I went to Yap because I thought I had something useful to offer. But Yap gave me far more than a professional assignment. It became home.
When a medical problem ended my Peace Corps service, I could have moved on with my life. Instead, after surgery, I went back and stayed for five years.
Now the Peace Corps has an opportunity to go back, too.
I hope it doesn't simply recreate the program that left in 2018. I hope the Peace Corps listens carefully to the people of Micronesia—not only to what outsiders assume they need, but to what Micronesians themselves say they want.
Young volunteers bring energy, curiosity and two years of commitment. Experienced volunteers bring decades of knowledge.
Micronesia has room for both.
And if the Peace Corps gets this right, perhaps the most important question won't be how to bring the Peace Corps back to Micronesia. Next will be how to build the Peace Corps that Micronesia wants.
Joyce McClure is a former senior marketing executive and former Peace Corps volunteer in Yap. Transitioning to freelance writing, she moved to Guam in 2021 and relocated back to the mainland in 2023. Send feedback to joycemcc62@yahoo.com
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