Meyer had taken President John Kennedy's admonition to serve in the Peace Corps personally and became a volunteer in 1969. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the creation of the Peace Corps. As a NU adjunct psychology faculty member, Meyer also teaches Peace Corps courses at Norwich with the hope that he will be able to pass on some of the knowledge that he gained from his experiences in the Peace Corps years ago. According to Meyer, his classes cover community development skills and compare local community development with that of third world nations, in particular South Africa. The three areas of focus in his courses center on health, education, youth, and economics.
Students take one area of study in depth.
The NU Peace Corps program has been facing troubled waters recently. Former director Mitch Hall left the position as program head last June. With nobody to officially replace him, many people thought that the program was weakening, explained Professor Johnnie Stones, Social Sciences Division Head. Meyer believes that part of the problem is that students don't know that the opportunity of the Peace Corps is here for them. Although the biggest change recently for the Peace Corps program was the lack of a specific department head, there were also some changes to the status of the curriculum.