Peace Corps Volunteers are making a nice fit in the Teacher Corps. Out of 19 teachers in the Mississippi Teacher Corps Class of 2004 five are Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. RPCVs have been involved in almost every single Teacher Corps class but this is the biggest percentage of RPCVs in one class.

Jay Dagostino is originally from San Diego, California. He served in the Philippines, in the area of Coastal Resource management. Jay has noticed that one of the similarities between the Peace Corps and the Mississippi Teacher Corps is, "Facilitating organization between different stakeholders to achieve a common goal."

Michael Baacke is originally from Pittsburgh, PA. He served as a high school teacher in Cameroon, a French-speaking country in Western Africa. Michael says that in Cameroon he learned that, "teaching was the profession I wanted to pursue." As for similarities between the Peace Corps and Teacher Corps Michael says, "The camaraderie that the group has is similar to the camaraderie that I felt in Peace Corps."

Juan Phillips, originally from Lewistown, PA served as a math teacher in Namibia, a country in Southern Africa. Juan is the third RPCV from Namibia in the past four years to take part in the Teacher Corps.

Eric Matte, from St. Johnsbury, VT, served in the Kingdom of Tonga as a Community Educator. While in Tonga, Eric played on a championship rugby team.

Tom Chapman, husband of Desi Chapman (Class of 2003), served in Kyrgyzstan, where he taught business classes at Osh State University.

The Mississippi Teacher Corps is a two-year program that recruits recent college graduates to teach in critical-shortage areas in the Mississippi Delta, in exchange for a full scholarship for a masters' degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Mississippi. The program was founded in 1989 and has provided more that 350 teachers to critical-shortage districts.

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