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Monday, October 01, 2007

Peace Corps to honor Blair Orr, MTU Master's Program Oct. 2

HOUGHTON -- Representatives of the United States Peace Corps will honor Michigan Tech Professor Blair Orr of the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science in a ceremony marking the twentieth anniversary of MTU's Peace Corps Master's International Program, the largest in the nation. Current Michigan Tech students and alums are also invited to speak. The event will take place at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 2, in Memorial Union Peninsula Room A.

Professor Orr is the coordinator of the Peace Corps Master's International Program in Forestry, which is named for Loret Miller Ruppe, Director of the Peace Corps from 1981 to 1989. A resident of Houghton, Mich., and recipient of an honorary doctorate degree from Michigan Tech, Loret Miller Ruppe was the longest-serving Director of Peace Corps. She passed away in 1996. A generous grant from Director Ruppe's estate to the U.S. Peace Corps established the Loret Miller Ruppe Fund for the Advancement of Women in order to provide women in developing countries with small financial grants to support grass-roots development projects.

In addition to the Forestry program, Michigan Tech also has Peace Corps Master's International Programs in Civil and Environmental Engineering; Geology, Geological Engineering and Geophysics; and Science Education. These programs allow Peace Corps Volunteers to earn a Master's Degree that combines graduate study at Michigan Tech with training and two years of Peace Corps service.

For information about these programs click on the links to their Web sites on our links list on the right, below the archives.

Visit the Keweenaw Now archives to read about Amber Lily Kenny of Houghton, a recent graduate of MTU's Master's International Program in Forestry, and her work in Togo, West Africa.

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