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CRP Peace Corps Partnership

Peace CorpsCornell’s City and Regional Planning Program is proud to partner with the Peace Corps in two new programs. Students in the master's in regional planning (M.R.P.) program now have an opportunity to combine a Cornell learning experience with a hands-on Peace Corps community-building experience. Students who take advantage the CRP/Peace Corps collaboration graduate with unique planning skills and techniques that are highly sought by employers in the nonprofit, governmental, and private sectors.

 

The flexible structure of Cornell’s M.R.P. degree program perfectly complements a variety of Peace Corps experiences. M.R.P. students take core courses in competencies that provide them with the building blocks of planning.  Students then work with their advisers to custom-design a program of study that matches their research interests. They may include courses from throughout the University in their degree programs. The capstone experience of the M.R.P. program is an exit project in which students incorporate their newly learned skills into a research paper, a professional report, or a thesis.
Information on these opportunities is available from Mildred Warner, director of graduate studies.

Fellows/USA Program
 Fellows/USA offers returning Peace Corps volunteers the opportunity to integrate two years of graduate study with a fully-funded summer placement in a nonprofit or municipal agency serving New York City’s poorest communities. It is a perfect opportunity for returning Peace Corps volunteers to continue their service to those in need while completing a program of academic study.
You spend the first year in the M.R.P. classroom completing core requirements and augmenting your skills with relevant elective courses, including a course in research methods and project design that helps to prepare you for a summer internship. For the summer, you receive a stipend and housing allowance from a Graduate Research Fellowship through the Cornell Urban Scholars Program (CUSP) and work with a Community Research Partner in New York City to conduct collaborative research that promotes the health and welfare of New York’s poorest citizens and communities.
After the summer internship, you return to campus to complete your second and final year of coursework for the M.R.P. degree. You will be encouraged to write an article for scholarly publication or a professional policy report on your internship experience. Once you complete the 60 required units of coursework and submit the written policy report, you are eligible for the M.R.P. professional degree.

More information on Fellows/USA is available from Director of Graduate Studies Mildred Warner, John Nettleton of the Cornell Urban Scholars Program, or the Peace Corps Fellows/USA website.
Master's International Program
 Master's International offers M.R.P. students who have an international focus the opportunity to integrate their academic experience with time in the field gaining a hands-on, practical understanding of international development. Master's International has three parts:

  • One year of coursework at Cornell: You spend your initial two semesters in the classroom completing core course requirements and augmenting your newly learned skills with relevant specialized courses in international studies and planning. This first year prepares you for the upcoming field placement. It also allows you time to develop a comfortable working relationship with your committee chair and to benefit from the wide and deep range of faculty experience in the international development field.

  • 27-month Peace Corps placement: These months are, in many ways, the most powerful component of Master's International. You have the chance to put classroom skills to use in a real world setting and see how those skills can transform communities. Regular contact with the committee chair is done via email, and you are welcome to visit Cornell. M.R.P. students can earn six credits for this Peace Corps field placement; it fulfills the program’s workshop requirement.

  • Final year of coursework and completion of the final exit project: You return to Cornell to complete your additional coursework and work with your committee chair to integrate your field experience into a final exit project.

Ideally, prospective students should apply to the M.R.P. program in the fall before the desired enrollment date first and then apply to the Peace Corps. Already-enrolled M.R.P. students may participate in Masters International if they make their decision during their first semester at Cornell.
More information on Master's International is available from Director of Graduate Studies Mildred Warner  or the Peace Corps Masters International website.