LaPorte student harvests an Apple for her farming essay

INDIANAPOLIS | A LaPorte High School student was awarded an Apple iPad Tuesday for penning the state's best essay explaining how Hoosier farmers nourish Indiana families, animals and the Earth.

Portage native embraces Peace Corps work in Africa

PORTAGE | At 24, Lauren Falk has learned a lesson many people don't learn in a lifetime.

Portage native embraces Peace Corps work in Africa

Lauren Falk, a 2007 Portage High School graduate, is home for the holidays after spending more than a year volunteering with the Peace Corps in Africa. She works at a clinic and assists in lessons in nutrition, family planning, HIV/AIDS prevention and sex education.

Portage native embraces Peace Corps work in Africa

Lauren Falk says her work with the Peace Corps in Africa has taught her to appreciate things Americans often take for granted, such as education and the opportunities it provides.

Portage native embraces Peace Corps work in Africa

Lauren Falk, a 2007 Portage High School graduate, poses with some of her students during a break from painting a map of Africa. Falk has been serving with the Peace Corps in Togo, a country in western Africa.

Portage native embraces Peace Corps work in Africa

Lauren Falk, a 2007 Portage High School graduate, uses a microscope to show a water sample to students in Togo, a west African country. Falk, who is back in the Portage area visiting family, has been serving with the Peace Corps in Africa.

MARK KIESLING: It may be the day, and night, of the jackal

How about just trying this? If you don't like it, I won't ever mention it again. Let's conduct a normal election in Illinois.

Region woman, 56, leaves for 27-month Peace Corps assignment in Azerbaijan

VALPARAISO | By their mid-50s, many baby boomers begin examining their pensions and private retirement accounts, collect brochures for vacation spots and look forward to exchanging work for more leisure time.

Crown Point lawyer answers call to serve others in Ukraine

CROWN POINT | Connie Postelli knows she's going to Ukraine to teach English as a second language with the Peace Corps, and that she leaves Northwest Indiana on Sept. 19. Her research has told her the winters will be brutal, with temperatures 20 to 40 degrees below zero.

Region residents describe lives transformed by Peace Corps

Being a child of the 1960s, Dave Morris said he "heeded President Kennedy's call" to join the Peace Corps after he graduated from college in the 1970s in part as a reaction to the reputation the nation had earned from its involvement in Vietnam.

Connection between Valpo High grads born of peace

VALPARAISO | As she prepared to begin her Peace Corps stint in Cambodia, the last thing Christin Spoolstra expected to encounter was someone from her hometown waiting to greet her.

AmeriCorps brings valuable talent at low cost

VALPARAISO | The AmeriCorps program got its start 21 years ago and is now in its fourth year in Northwest Indiana, but its future is uncertain because of federal budget cuts.

Region's former Peace Corps volunteers now tackle challenges closer to home

Patricia Nau Mertz, originally from Hammond and now living in Chicago, volunteered for the Peace Corps in 2001 when she was 55. "It sounds trite, but I gained a greater understanding, greater empathy and a greater connection to the world," Mertz said.

Region's former Peace Corps volunteers now tackle challenges closer to home

Patricia Nau Mertz holds a photograph she took during one of her trips to Africa. Mertz started a nonprofit organization in 2008 called Ivory Coast Mothers and Children, and has built a clinic in Braffoueby, Ivory Coast.

Region's former Peace Corps volunteers now tackle challenge

Hundreds of soldiers armed with bayonet-tipped rifles spilled from doors lining the three wings of the ornate palace and sprinted straight at Jon Groth. It was 1979, the time of the hostage crisis in Iran. And here was Groth, an American in another Muslim country, the North African kingdom o…

Hoosier lawyer cultivates friends, economy on West Africa isle

When Matthew Kubal passed the Indiana State Bar in 2010, he hung his shingle in Indianapolis.

VU partners with Peace Corps to prepare leaders

VALPARAISO | After graduating from Valparaiso University three years ago, Natalie Kalish went off to serve the world. Kalish, currently in law school at the University of Denver, is one of 236 VU alumni to serve in the Peace Corps. That number will grow thanks to a new partnership.

Peace Corps partnership to prepare students for service

VALPARAISO | A new partnership between Valparaiso University and the Peace Corps Master's International Program will prepare students with the knowledge and skills required to successfully serve and strengthen communities throughout the world.