Attached is a copy of the official memorandum entitled "Description of Service" describing the activities of Daniel S. Marx while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer. It is currently on file in the National Office Volunteer Financial Operations Office.

1. Peace Corps of the United States
AHY-1>1u 3HX TAHBHLI KOPilYC
Box 1036, Central Post, Ulaanbaatar 13, Mongolia
Description ofPeace Corps Service
Danny Marx Mongolia
After a competitive application process stressing applicant skills, adaptability,
and cross cultural sensitivity, Danny Marx began Peace Corps Training on June
5th 2005 in the city of Darkhan, Darkhan-Uul province in Mongolia and
completed an intensive 11-week community based program. Training elements
included a home stay, approximately 160 hours of Mongolian language, cross
culture seminars, countryside survival skills, and technical courses in community
youth development within the Mongolian context.
Mr. Marx was officially sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer on August 20th,
2005. He was responsible to numerous agencies during his service. His original
assignment was with the Erdenet Co-Development Non-Government
Organization. Later he worked with the Erdenet Area branch ofWorld Vision. He
finished his service jointly responsible to the Erdenet Non-Formal Education
Center and the Erdenet Vocational Training School. Mr. Marx served as a
community youth development volunteer and reported directly to both Mr.
Khurelbaatar director of the Erdenet Vocational Training School and Mrs.
Monktuya the director ofthe Erdenet Non-Formal Education Center.
Danny's primary activities as a community youth development volunteer in
Erdenet revolved around capacity development of youth and youth senring
organizations and persons.
While working with the ErdenetArea branch of World Vision and the Erdenet Co
Development NGO Danny spent countless hours working with the staff to
improve their office management skills as well as improve their English language
competencies. Perhaps his greatest achievement while working with these offices
was the successful planning, organization, and execution of a conference that
focused on the necessity of cooperation among the many organizations working
in the I!.rdenet area thc:..t work V'irit11 the local youth. This conference was attended
by representatives of over 25 organizations. Presentations were made by the
Erdenet Mayor, Director of World Vision, Director of the local office of the
International Red Cross, Peace Corps, President of the Erdenet College Youth
Council, the chief of police, the director of the Children center, and many more.
The conference resolved to create an Erdenet Youth Organization Council
composed of representative from all of the organizations present at the meeting.
The goal of this council was to hold occasional meeting where organizations could
present their plans for the future and figure out how they could collaborate in
order to pool their resources for the benefit ofthe local youth.
Peace Corps ofthe United States
Building 95, Microregion 6, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Tel: 311518 Fax: 311520
Country Code: 976 City Code: 11
Email: custodian@mn.peacecorps.gov

2. At the Erdenet Non Formal Education center he planned and taught a series of
lessons to each class of students of various ages and development levels. These
lessons focused on a variety of life skills development. The lessons generally
involved a short presentation of new and interesting information followed by an
assortment of games and exercises which forced the students to use their own
unique experiences to understand the importance ofthe particular lesson's focus.
Many of these lessons were also presented to groups of community leaders with
the intention of having the importance of the focus on proper development of the
youth disseminate throughout all levels of the community from government
officials to families. Danny also taught separate lessons to the staff ofthe Erdenet
Non Formal Education Center about proper teaching methodology with the
intention of establishing a level of sustainability in the program of life skill
education he had initiated.
At the Erdenet Vocational Training School Danny established an after school club
whose attendance grew with every meeting. The final meeting of this club had to
be held in the school auditorium because over 100 students showed up. In this
club Danny facilitated a number of activities meant to empower the students as
well as present them with new and interesting information that otherwise may
have never been made available to the students, He also taught basic leadership
and club management skills to improve the capacity of the youth led clubs. He
reused many of the lessons presented to the students of the Non Formal
Education center, conducted weekly IQ style quiz competitions, jointly translated
popular foreign songs and discussed the meanings behind the lyrics, and
encouraged the students to organize independently and use their collective
ambitions to accomplish great things. This club organized a year end all school
picnic and sport competitions. Danny also worked with the school's teachers and
held trainings on new methodology of student centered instruction to contrast
the traditional teacher centered teaching styles which remained prevalent since
the fall ofthe communist education system in the early 199o's.
Every summer Danny worked at a local summer youth camp located 60
kilometers north of the city. This camp's original purpose was to keep the
children busy and occupied during their summer breaks by having them labor in
vegetable plots (potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and onions). This work was intended
to instill a strong work ethic in the youth and protect them from the harmful
sense of apathy which has infected much of the population, When the children
were not laboring they were given free time to do whatever they wanted. Danny
was able to use his influence to use this free time to implement more structured
programs; classroom lessons (English language and life skills), organized sport
competitions, time to help local herders and learn about their more traditional
Mongolian lifestyles, Nature hikes and awareness conversations, etc. Danny was
also able to use his connections with World Vision to have three gers (traditional
Mongolian felt tents) donated to the camp and grow enrollment from 150 kids the
first year to 200 kids the second year. He also coordinated with area social
workers to guarantee that many of the area ehildren who suffer in some of the
most difficult circumstances were reserved places at the summer camp.

3. Danny arranged with Peace Corps to have the new group of community youth
development trainees spend three days at the camp learning how to interact with
children at a very informal level. He used this time to portray to the new trainees
a more realistic account of what their future life as a volunteer would be like and
also to discuss the greatest difficulties he had experienced and how he was able to
persevere. The trainees mutually expressed their gratitude to Danny for
arranging what they felt was an incredibly usefol training. Peace Corps staff was
also greatly impressed with the success of this never before attempted format for
trainings and hope to be able to continue and even expand it to future trainings
and trainees.
Danny was also able to work very successfully outside his traditional workspace.
Independently he was able to network with numerous agencies in the community
and begin programs aimed at helping to develop the community and the
community youth in particular.
Working with a local radio station Danny was able to write and produce a series
of 10 radio programs, each focusing on a particular life skill: intro to life skills,
self-esteem, communication, relationships, managing emotions, decision making,
planning skills, stress management, empathy, and critical thinking. These
productions were aired every other day for a month. Recordings of the shows and
transcripts have been made available to every Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia.
Worlzing with a local television station and site mate Rachel Hatch, Danny helped
begin the broadcast of the local news in English once a week. Danny hopes that
this broadcast can become a forum to present the community with valuable
international news and topics that will help raise the awareness of important
issues that affect the Mongolia and the world in general.
Working with the Erdenet Education and Culture Center Danny was able to
organize a trivia competition among teams of students from 6 of the area's
schools. The competition stressed the importance of having a good well rounded
education. The format of the competition will be emulated in the future for
similar events with area college students, teachers, and young professionals.
Erdenet Public Television has expressed interest in having the competitions
televised.
Peace Corps Mongolia has recently been tackling the issue of Trafficking in
Persons (TIP) throughout the country. Danny was an active member in the Peace
Corps' focus on TIP education. He attended every meeting of the PCM TIP
committee. At site he spoke to numerous internet cafes and was able to convince
them to use a particular website aimed at educating the Mongolian youth about
the issue as their homepage. This way any child who wanted to surf the net were
confronted with this information. He personally arranged for meetings at each of
the area's universities where he was able to present the issue to particularly
vulnerable students. He also presented the issue to a large group of English

4. teachers and helped them develop lesson pla1is that lJSed the issie of Trafficking
in Persons in their English classes. ·
Danny through his 27 months of service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia
consistently proved that he was able to confidently confront and succeed through
the numerous unique difficult situations he was dealt. He was able to deal Vrith
the internal turmoil in the agencies in which he was assigned and remain focused
on his goal to help develop Mongolia and the youth in particular. His
accomplishments have been often praised by his community and were even
specifically fi atured in subsequent a·unual reports sent to Washington DC. He
has become a beacon of exemplary triumph over diversjty in the Peace Corps
Mongolia community and will be missed.
This is to certify in accordance with Executive Order No. 11103 of April 10, 1963,
that Mr. Marx served satisfactorily as a Peace Corps Volunteer. His service ended
on August 10th, 2007. He is therefore eligible to be appointed as a career-
conditional employee in the competitive civil service on a non-competitive basis.
This benefit under the Executive Order entitlement extends for a period of one-
year, except that the employing agency may extend for up to three years for a
former Volunteer who enters military service, pursues studies at a recognized
institution of higher learning or engages in other activities which, the view of the
appointing authority, warrants extension of the period.
Pursuant to section 5 (f) of the Peace Corps Act, 2~ U.S.C 2504 (f) as amended,
any former Volunteer employed by the United States Government folloVring
his/her Peace Corps Service is entitled to have any pel'iod of satisfactory Peace
Corps Volunteer Service credited for purposes of retirement, seniority, reduction
in force, leave and other pTivileges based on length of Government service. Peace
Corps shall not be credited toward completion ofthe probationa1y or trial period
or completion of any requirement for career appointment
Privacy Act Notice: The information requested herein is collected pursuant to
Section s of the Peace Corps Act (22 USC 2504 (f) ). The information will be used
exclusively to prepare the Description of Volunteer Service Statement.
&h/or Jini ·a1·Dati I
eaG~ Corps Country Director
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
~EACECORl'S0
Does Not Have
An Official
~ SealOrStamr'Date
Pe.ace Corps Volunteer
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia