Jeff Schlieper was cheering from home in Kirovograd, Ukraine, for his wife Barbara, who was being honored for her hard work and service with the Peace Corps at a ceremony at the JFK Library in Boston in early March. ‘Great news from Peace Corps!’ Jeff wrote to his family, including his mother-in-law Margaret Pollock, a longtime Palisadian. ‘It was from the Peace Corps Director Gaddi Vasquez, who said that this year is the 45th anniversary of the founding of the Peace Corps and as part of the anniversary, Peace Corps is awarding six John F. Kennedy Service Awards’two to PC staff, two to returned PC volunteers, and two to current PC volunteers. Barbara was selected from over 8,000 Peace Corps volunteers as one of two to receive this award.’ Schlieper, a former Palisadian, whose mother still lives in the Riviera, was nominated for developing an English program in Ukraine. ‘She has worked tirelessly as a teacher trainer at the Kirovograd In-Service Teacher Training Institute, where she has facilitated and presented seminars, workshops and conferences to hundreds of regional English teachers who might otherwise not have had exposure to contemporary teaching methods and a native English speaker,’ said her TEFL Lead Specialist Tatiana Gaiduk. Two hundred and forty teachers of all ages and experience levels have taken part in Barbara’s teaching recertification courses. She has become known to a wider audience for her effective teacher trainings and presented numerous seminars upon invitation in towns and villages of her region. ‘I can’t think of anyone else who is so committed to visiting village teachers at their schools and providing them with the efficient trainings regardless what season is outdoors and what kind of transportation is available,’ said her supervisor. In her nomination letter, her supervisor cited Barbara’s own words that she used to address the new volunteers: ‘Teaching is not for sissies. It can be a lonely and a frustrating experience. American volunteers in Ukraine are experiencing a historic opportunity. The language you teach and the attitudes you embody are exactly what Ukrainians need as they make the transition from the Soviet era to a culture open to new ideas and to Western Europe. While there will be days, maybe weeks, when you feel you are still up to your neck in the old days, your presence and your work are a daily reminder to the people you live with that the old days are over and there is hope for a better future.’ Upon hearing that she was to receive the award, Barbara said in an e-mail to her family that she was ‘pretty much in shock. ‘I wrote to our PC staff in Kiev and asked them to send me a copy of the ‘lies’ they told about me so I could keep my story straight…the part about being six and a half feet tall, walking on water and healing the sick by laying on hands, that part…in the immortal words of the astronauts’ wives in Apollo 13, ‘We’re proud, we’re happy, and thrilled.” Barbara and her husband will be home (on Vashon Island) in less than a year. She and Jeff have two children, a son in Texas and a daughter in Washington, D.C.
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