Peace Corps Commemorative
The Peace Corps program was established by Executive Order 10924, which was issued by President John F. Kennedy on March 1, 1961. The program was legislatively authorized by Congress on September 21, 1961, with passage of the Peace Corps Act (Pub.L. 87–293). Between 1961 and 2013, over 215,000 Americans joined the Peace Corps. The National Peace Corps Association, a nonprofit organization for Peace Corps alumni, established the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation to advocate for a commemorative to honor the mission of the Peace Corps and the values on which it was founded.
Consulate General of the United States, Chengdu
In 1993, the Peace Corps began a program in China, headquartered in Chengdu. A Peace Corps Director and staff were posted in the city. From its beginning, the primary mission of Peace Corps China has been to assist in the training of young Chinese to become English teachers in the rapidly increasing number of junior high schools of the area, specifically in the relatively undeveloped provinces of Gansu, Guizhou, and Sichuan as well as the municipality of Chongqing. There were eighteen teachers in the first group of Peace Corps China Volunteers, and they served in five teacher training institutions. Now, twenty years later, there are about 150 Volunteers teaching in 90 institutions.