Michael Parmly Visited PVHS Classes in May

According to his lengthy resume, Michael E. Parmly is a career member of the US Senior Foreign Service, a veteran of 26 years at the State Department. He has served the bulk of his career in Western and Eastern Europe, most recently in the Balkans, where he was Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge d’Affaires in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina 1996-1997. He spent three years as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, during which time he served as Acting Assistant Secretary for six months in 2001, and he recently returned from several months as the State Representative on the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

His earlier overseas tours have included: Political Minister-Counselor at the US Embassy in Paris, France, Political Counselor at the US Embassy in Bucharest, Romania, and at the US Mission to the European Communities, including tours in Morocco and Spain. Mr. Parmly also served in the Operations Center at the State Department, in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) at the State Department and as Office Director for Northern Europe in the Bureau of European Affairs. Prior to joining the State Department, Parmly was a Peace Corps Volunteer (1973-1975) in Bucaramanga, Colombia.

Putnam Valley High School was privileged to welcome Michael Parmly, who is the brother of former Putnam Valley Board of Education Trustee and current Putnam Valley Elementary School teacher, Barbara Parmly, as a speaker on May 27th. He addressed Global Studies and Spanish classes about his Peace Corps experience, with emphasis on how the main focus of his work was listening to and learning about another culture/country.

Parmly talked about his work with the recent Afghanistan elections and told, from his point of view, why we were there, how we helped, and why it worked so well. He also discussed the State Department and career opportunities for students interested in working with foreign nations. He discussed the importance of foreign languages in speaking to, but more importantly, in listening to people from other countries.

Mrs. Graciela Greenberg, who teaches Spanish in the Languages Other Than English (LOTE) department at PVHS, commented, "Mike is a person we want our students to meet. His experiences all over the world have given him a special sensitivity that helps him value and appreciate other cultures no matter how different from ours they are. He talked to the students about the importance of knowing beforehand the culture of the places we visit, such as the need to accept and drink the cup of tea offered by the town elders in Afghanistan before any business can be conducted. Several of our students asked about the Foreign Service and plan to continue taking Spanish because, knowing another language would give them a better opportunity to obtain a job there."