In a landmark hybrid regional ceremony connecting four Eastern Caribbean nations this week, 25 new Peace Corps volunteers were officially sworn in, launching a two-year service mission focused on expanding early-grade English literacy across local primary school communities. The inclusive event brought together in-person and virtual stakeholders from four host nations: St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Grenada, and Dominica. Attendees included senior government officials, representatives from national education ministries, local community leaders, volunteer host families, partnering school administrations, and Peace Corps organizational staff, all gathered to extend a collective welcome to the incoming cohort.
In her opening remarks, Peace Corps Eastern Caribbean Country Director Kimberly Will underscored the historic weight of the occasion, highlighting both the personal commitment of the new volunteers and the deep, longstanding ties between the region and the global service organization. She noted that St. Lucia boasts one of the organization’s oldest continuous partnerships, dating all the way back to 1961 when the first Peace Corps volunteers arrived on the island — a partnership that will mark its 65th anniversary in 2026. Will emphasized that the most meaningful and lasting change from Peace Corps service does not come from programs alone, but from “sustained relationships, shared goals, and collaboration rooted in optimism and commitment with their host country counterparts.”
Karin Sullivan, Chargé d’Affaires for the U.S. Mission to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, also addressed the new volunteers, urging them to uphold the core Peace Corps values of cross-cultural friendship, institutional accountability, and mutual respect. She reminded the group that their individual service forms part of a broader American tradition of civic engagement, one rooted in the belief that individual commitment and contribution can strengthen both the United States and global communities at large.
Before their swearing-in, the 25 volunteers completed an intensive 9-week immersive preparation program designed to equip them for life and service in the region. Training covered critical skills including local language acquisition, cultural orientation tailored to Eastern Caribbean norms, evidence-based literacy instruction methods, and hands-on classroom practice to build teaching confidence. Now fully prepared, the volunteers will deploy to primary school placements across the four islands, where they will focus on boosting English literacy outcomes for students in Grades 1 through 5, a critical period for building foundational reading skills.
Deployment numbers are distributed across the host islands to match local education needs: five volunteers will serve in Dominica, six in Grenada, nine in St. Lucia, and five in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Each cohort will work aligned with the long-term national literacy goals set by their host country’s education leadership.
The induction of the new cohort comes as Peace Corps Eastern Caribbean prepares to mark a major regional milestone in 2026: 65 years of continuous service and partnership across the region, and with the Government of St. Lucia specifically. Since the first Peace Corps volunteers arrived in the Eastern Caribbean in 1961, more than 4,339 volunteers have served across the subregion. Currently, 38 active volunteers are working alongside local teachers, school principals, and community members to expand literacy access and deepen people-to-people cultural exchange across the four host islands.