Peace Corps wants older recruits

In the last few months, Normand Tremblay, 55, quit his job as a stockbroker, sold his house in Nashua, N.H., kissed his grown children goodbye, and, on Tuesday afternoon, paid his last utility bill.

Today, he will fly out of Philadelphia International Airport to his new life as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon, Africa.

Tremblay is part of a trend at the Peace Corps. Within the next two years, one of America's most venerable service organizations wants 15 percent of its new recruits to be like Tremblay - older than 50. Now, baby boomers and their older cohorts make up about 5 percent.

The older workers come with advantages: experience, advanced skills and maturity. But the Peace Corps faces challenges with this workforce, including coping with potential health problems and more complicated personal finances and family lives.

Even so, if baby boomers are ready to retire, the Peace Corps is ready to hire, said its director, Ronald Tschetter.

"They have good retirement benefits, and they are healthy. They are empty nesters," he said. "Guess what. They need something to do.

"I can't tell you how many times I've been told, 'I don't want to go to the beach, drink Mai Tais, and put my toes in the sand. I want to serve.' "

In other countries, he said, "their age and senior status bring a lot of respect."

It is not a matter of necessity, Tschetter said. The Peace Corps gets plenty of applicants, turning away two out of three who try to sign up. Also, the Peace Corps' portfolio has risen among its traditional hiring base of recent college graduates.

Among all U.S. college students, the Peace Corps ranks fifth among potential employers, behind first-place Google Inc., Apple Inc., the Walt Disney Co., and the U.S. State Department, according to a recent survey by Universum Communications Sweden AB.

The Peace Corps, Tschetter said, will not abandon its mainstay campus recruitment. But, to attract the older cohort, creativity counts.

For example, the Peace Corps turned to a professional group, the Water Environment Federation, for expert recruits in water quality.

The boomers are responding. In May, Tschetter said, a record 300 showed up at a Seattle information session.

Now, Tschetter said, the Peace Corps needs to improve its handling of these older recruits.

A typical Peace Corps volunteer (median age 29) can get the hang of a new language in three months of intensive training.

"The older people get intimidated," Tschetter said. "We have to reengineer the language training, and basically slow it down."

The Peace Corps also requires extensive health screening and will typically place older volunteers nearer to medical care.

One surprising challenge? Older recruits have assets - investments and homes that need to be managed during the recruit's required 27 months of service. Older recruits also worry about siblings or elderly parents becoming ill.

Tschetter said the older volunteers were attracted by a sense of adventure and mission, and a chance to apply their skills creatively in new settings. Imagine a longtime teacher in a classroom with no books or even windows. "They are challenged beyond belief," Tschetter said.

That is what Tremblay was looking for when he applied online several months ago, almost on a whim.

Divorced, he had been a single parent of five children, the youngest now 25.

Tremblay spent long days working as a stockbroker and financial adviser. "I was sick of my job," he said. "I basically needed a break from the rat race."

A daughter half-jokingly suggested the Peace Corps.

"I started thinking. I have a blank check. I have no romantic attachments. I sold the house, I quit my job, I paid off all my debts," he said. "This gives me a chance to take a little break from life while I'm not too sickly to do it."

Selling his home of 22 years made him sad. But "it was time to move on. I could feel that," he said.

On Wednesday, Tremblay arrived in Philadelphia for a two-day Peace Corps gathering of volunteers heading to Peru and Cameroon. He will work in business development and microfinance.

Instead of his stockbroker salary, he will earn a small stipend tied to Cameroon's prevailing wages. His medical needs will be covered, and he will be given a place to live. "I think I get a bicycle," Tremblay added.

In four groups totaling 137 recruits who met in Philadelphia this week, there are eight over age 50. The oldest is 74, assigned to Moldova.

"I feel two extreme emotions," Tremblay said. "Exhilaration and excitement, and fear and panic."

For the Peace Corps Web page about older volunteers, go to http://go.philly.com/pcorpsEndText