History of ECGS: Overview
The genesis of the idea for an Earth Corps starts with Lynne Twist (author of the book, The Soul of Money, founder of the Pachamama Project, and former Executive Director of the Hunger Project), who attended a talk Eric Utne gave about entrepreneurship at MIT’s Sloane School back in 1991. After the talk, Lynne leaped up to tell the 200 MBA students about a gathering she had just attended in Oslo, convened by Gro Harlem Brundtland to address the environmental crisis. She said an idea came out of it to start a Peace Corps for the whole Earth, to be called the “Earth Corps.” It would enlist college students, mid-life adults, and retirees throughout the world to address human and environmental needs. Many of students present then shouted, “Sign me up,” but until now no one has taken up the idea.
Then, in 1999, ECGS cofounder John Miller decided to start a college, to be named after his step-grandfather, Albert Schweitzer. He, Eric Utne, and others designed Albert Schweitzer College (ASC) to be built on five pillars: academics, the arts, service, the environment, and spirit (broadly defined as in Schweitzer’s core ethic of “Reverence for Life”). When people started to hear about the program, many were particularly drawn to the aspect of service, so in 2004 Eric and John decided to create a Schweitzer Earth Corps. In early 2006, they realized that this new thing would be bigger, broader, more inclusive, and farther reaching than ASC, and renamed it the Earth Corps for Global Service (ECGS).
In April, 2006, Carol Bellamy and Eric met to discuss the Earth Corps for Global Service. Carol was the Executive Director of the Peace Corps for two years (’93-’95) and UNICEF for ten (’95-’05). In 2004 she became President and CEO of World Learning, whose School for International Training places 2000 Americans abroad ever year. For over an hour she and Eric discussed the growing need for global citizenship and the vision for the ECGS. Carol became extremely enthusiastic and offered to co-author articles, co-host fundraising events, and do whatever she could to help create and launch the ECGS. Since then Carol and Eric have been spreading the word, while Eric and John have been working with partners and supporters to lay the foundation for ECGS to officially commence operations in 2008.
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