When David Stoloff, who hails from New York, joined the Peace Corps in 1973, he was sent to Zaire to serve as a teacher of science, math, and English. He ultimately spent two years there, teaching in various parts of the country. By the time he completed his Peace Corps service, the teaching bug was entrenched. He eventually moved to California as a doctoral student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Eventually, he landed at Eastern Connecticut State University (Eastern), where he’s been a professor for the last 30 years.
Peace Corps service inspires ongoing intercultural connections
His Peace Corps service inspired him to continue promoting intercultural connections among universities. For his classes in international and cross-cultural education and global connections in education, he built connections with universities in over a dozen nations—from Algeria to Pakistan. He notes that given the available technology, it’s a surprise there aren’t more connections among universities, because it’s an easy way to introduce students to different cultures and to develop intercultural projects across borders. Enter the Peace Corps’ Global Connections Program.
Peace Corps’ Global Connections program
The Paul D. Coverdell World Wise Schools Global Connections program, a Peace Corps initiative that centers on the third goal of the Peace Corps—to increase Americans’ understanding of other peoples and cultures—links educators, camps, youth programs, and universities around the world with members of the Peace Corps network to promote knowledge and cultural exchange. Professor Stoloff submitted his students and himself for a Global Connections listing.
In his words, “I posted a request for intercultural connections among universities with the Global Connections program at Peace Corps in June 2024. John Luebke responded in September 2024 and introduced me to two professors, Enkhbayar Lkhagva and Bulgantsetseg Munkhbat, at the Mongolian National University. After email exchanges, Professor Enkhbayar organized a video conference to further discuss planning in December 2024.”
A match between Mongolia and Connecticut
John Luebke was serving as a Community Development and Education Volunteer in a town in the Uvurkhangai Province of Mongolia. During the early part of his service, Peace Corps/Mongolia staff mentioned the Global Connections program, and John thought that matching Mongolian students of English with students and teachers in the United States would be interesting. He notes that many Mongolian students who are practicing English want to learn more about American culture, daily life, and studying abroad. John rightfully anticipated that connecting Mongolian students with American students might be more impactful than an adult “telling the students what to do.” When John scrolled thorough the Global Connections listing, he saw David’s. Intrigued, John emailed David, who enthusiastically started generating ideas for the Global Connections match.
A seed of connection grows
John said that the Mongolian teachers who taught secondary English with him also wanted more knowledge and interaction about American culture, and that became the initial focus of the connection. However, due to limits on their time and class demands, the project eventually shifted to connecting university students in Mongolia and Connecticut. But the scope grew.
In John’s words: "Through connections with a geography teacher at my school, whose sister (Professor Enkhee) teaches at the Mongolian National University of Education (MNUE) in Ulaanbaatar, I connected professors Enkhee and Professor Bulgantsetseg 'Bulgaa' Munkhbat, who also taught at MNUE, with this possibility. Then a Zoom call with professors David, Enkhee, and Bulgaa ballooned into additional possibilities. It helped that Professors Enkhee and Bulgaa also graduated from the secondary school at which I co-teach, so we already had the familiarity to start building a global connection.”
Digital connections
In the fall of 2024, the two educators developed a Facebook group, and some Eastern students added introductions. During the spring 2025 semester, Eastern students created videos and uploaded them to a YouTube channel to share with their new Mongolian friends. After that, students from both nations continued to post introductions to the Facebook group website. Eastern students shared a list of email addresses to encourage individual connections.
For John, the biggest surprise about the connection was how surprised the Mongolian professors were at the additional time (often late into the evenings) they needed to coach and correct the students with their Tik Tok videos. Developing social media in this way was not common for their students, so everyone was learning. The students came from various schools within the university, so they were not all teachers-in-training.
David, for his part, was surprised about the interest the Mongolian students had in using Facebook as a communication medium, rather than communicating via email.
Professors team up to help program succeed
The two American professors developed a curriculum-based format and mapped out the timing and expectations of the virtual exchange. The Mongolian professors invested extra time developing the program to fit their curricula, and they needed to guide, correct and coach the students with their video projects, which initially were not fully developed. The Mongolian professors involved another professor and later suggested involving more professors so that each small group of students could be paired with a university professor for more program guidance. The Global Connections program was outside the standard curriculum for MNUE but, fortunately, these professors were able to convey the importance of the program to their universities and work to make it fit the curriculum.
Although the project was not always easy to manage due to the 12-hour time difference between the two groups of students, both American professors were impressed by the participants’ and fellow professor’s enthusiasm, curiosity, and ability to think outside of the box to make things happen. Both John and David noted that “once they started linking the Global Connections possibilities to their respective curricula, the Mongolian educators took the program and ran with it—including creating videos for the exchange that spanned a tour of the Chinggis Khaan National Museum in Ulaanbaatar, a video short on the daily life of a Mongolian student, a video on herding livestock in Mongolia, a day in the life of an Eastern State University commuting student, a survey of Connecticut foods, and a video about professional goals and interests.
Key learnings
When asked what they thought other Peace Corps Volunteers and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) could get out of the Global Connections program, both David and John talked about all the positives.
John advised that “sometimes one needs to be spontaneous and just go with trying to make a program work, and sometimes one needs to carefully plan aspects of a program to match relevant, applicable, and interesting aspects within a curriculum. Finding the enthusiastic and realistic students and teachers/professors is key, and having those people involved will make the possibilities more joyful and interesting.”
David, as an RPCV, said that he learned more about the possibilities of how intercultural connections can widen the worldviews of both students and educators. He went on to say that “Eastern Connecticut State University students were impressed by the video and language skills of the Mongolian university students. They learned a lot about Mongolia and student life there. Using Facebook, the students are beginning to make personal connections and share their hopes for the future.” What a perfect example of the Peace Corps’ third goal in action.
Global connections into the future
John emphasized the huge potential in intercultural learning through the Global Connections program, and offered the idea that, especially in a university setting, the program must link easily to the curriculum. The benefits are clear though. John hopes that one day intercultural connections will be used regularly to connect students worldwide as they study English and other languages and learn the history and culture of other nations.

Published Date:2025-08-21