Caroline Cox, director of major gifts at Ithaca College, went to the Philippines in 1965 and worked in the country until she became so ill with dengue fever that she completed her two-year term in the Washington, D.C., Peace Corps office.

Cox performed a variety of tasks, including speaking to civic groups and educating elite Filipinos about the conditions under which other Filipinos lived. One of the direct outcomes of her talks was the establishment of a program to bring ophthalmologists into the public schools to examine the vision of needy children.

Peace Corps volunteers (PCVs) in the Philippines during the time when American troops were fighting in Vietnam experienced unique difficulties. "In the city we were vulnerable," says Cox, "because Peace Corps volunteers were suspected of being with the CIA. This was played out in the newspapers a lot. Dealing with the American soldiers was also tough, because they were bitter toward us."