The Positive Report | A Source of Positive News
(VOA)--Five years ago, on August 29, a powerful hurricane struck the Gulf Coast of the southern United States, killing more than 1,800 people and causing billions of dollars in damage to states along the coast. Much of the flooding and many of the deaths occurred in and around the city of New Orleans. And in an extra blow to the economy, the city's tourist attractions were especially hard-hit. But, if the New Orleans' restaurant scene is any indicator, New Orleans is definitely on the way back.
As New Orleans looks back to the tragedy the city experienced after Hurricane Katrina five years ago, local officials and community leaders are giving special praise to the role played in the recovery by one of the city's crown jewels - Tulane University. Tulane President Scott Cowen is determined that the university remain involved in rebuilding a city he says is irreplaceable.
Tulane University was just starting its fall semester when Hurricane Katrina struck five years ago and flooded 70 percent of the main campus. Many people feared that Tulane, one of the most prestigious private universities in America, might take a year or more to re-open. But University President Scott Cowen was determined to get faculty and students back as soon as possible and Tulane was up and running for the next semester.
In a VOA interview, Cowen said students not only came back to study, but they have also continued to help restore the stricken city ."They volunteer, every year, hundreds of thousands of hours, hundreds of thousands of hours, to the recovery of this city. We have, at any moment of time, literally 200 or 300 faculty, working on various projects in the city with their students," he said.
This idea of studying in a city where you can also perform significant community service has a strong appeal to students around the country seeking a college education. Cowen says that before Katrina hit five years ago, around 18,000 people applied for the 1,500 undergraduate slots available at Tulane each semester. This year there were 44,000 applicants, the highest applicant pool for any private university in the United States.
Cowen says Tulane's role in the city's recovery is a big draw.
In the early 1980s, Gordy Mengel served as a Peace Corps volunteer in an isolated community in what was then called Zaire, now Congo.
"I was placed somewhere in the middle part of the country," says Mengel. "And in the small community where I lived there was no post office, so getting letters out, which was basically the only means of communication, was very challenging.
Letters would take weeks, or months, to arrive.
Hi-tech times
But now, thanks to technology, that is no longer the case. Computers, cells phones and the Internet have changed the way Peace Corps volunteers do their work and stay in touch.
Now a Peace Corps Programming and Training Officer in Rwanda, Mengel says improved communication technology has changed how people serve in the Peace Corps.
Back when he was a volunteer, he lost track of friends and family back in the United States so he had no choice but to integrate into the community.
"These days, with the advent of the internet and cell phone service and so forth, I still see volunteers having some of that experience but again, when they go back to their homes, instead of turning out the kerosene light and going to bed," says Mengel, "they can get on Skype and they give a quick call to mom and dad back at home. And that part of the experience has changed."
(VOA)--The London-hosted Paralympic games for disabled athletes are two years away and Great Britain has begun to search for talent and bring its athletes together at a new training center in the Southwestern city of Bath. Jennifer Glasse visited the camp and reports for VOA from there.
