The name "Atlas Service Corps" was chosen for a variety of reasons after discussions with citizen sector leaders from around the world.The second part of the name, "Service Corps" was chosen to identify itself as an international exchange program like the "Peace Corps." The Atlas Service Corps has been described as the "21st Century Peace Corps" or a "Reverse Peace Corps" because instead of taking people from the United States to volunteer in the 'developing' world, this program will take rising leaders from the 'developing' world to volunteer in the United States.
The first part of the name, Atlas, has many relevant references. First, the mythical character named Atlas. He is the son of Titan Iapetus and Clymene (or Asia), brother of Prometheus. Atlas was punished by Zeus and made to bear the weight of the heavens and earth on his back. In his epic Odyssey, Homer refers to this Atlas as "one who knows the depths of the whole sea, and keeps the tall pillars who hold heaven and earth asunder". For the Atlas Service Corps, our modern day "Atlas" is the rising citizen sector leader who is working hard to help people in this world. Our modern day Atlas is not doing this work out of punishment, but out of a vision leadership to make the world a better place.
There is a second mythical character named Atlas as well. The second Atlas was King Atlas, a mythical King of Mauretania, in Libya. This Atlas was a wise philosopher, mathematician and astronomer, who supposedly made the first celestial globe. Like this Atlas, our modern day Atlas Fellows are social entrepreneurs who see the world differently than their peers. Our Atlas knows that good ideas are important, but they must be well thought through, mathematical and mapped out. Ideas have no real meaning until they are implemented, and cannot be copied easily, sustainable or replicable, if there is not a map to guide the route for others.
Origin of the Logo:
Of course, the most common definition of the word Atlas is that of a book of Maps. For the Atlas Service Corps we chose a logo that was an upside picture of the world. For centuries everyone has accepted that north is on the top of the map while south is on the bottom. However, there is no astrological reason for this -- in space there is no difference between up and down. Therefore our logo is an upside-down world, representing how we are turning international exchanges upside-down -- no longer will volunteers go from the global north down to the global south, but from the global south "down" to the global north!