The Peace Corps recently ranked Wesleyan seventh in a list of small colleges with the most alumni serving as Peace Corps volunteers. According to a Peace Corps press release, the University of Chicago topped the list with 34 alumni volunteers. The University of Wisconsin at Madison was ranked first among large universities, and the University of Virginia led the way among mid-sized colleges. Wesleyan, Wellesley College and Oberlin College all currently have 24 alumni in Peace Corps service.
Peace Corps volunteers commit to living abroad for two years. They work in developing nations on a variety of issues, ranging from AIDS prevention to agriculture.
Michael Sciola, Director of the Career Resource Center, said he the high number of Wesleyan grads involved in the Peace Corps does not surprise him.
“We have a long history of being a feeder to the Peace Corps, and we have won recognition from them in the past,” Sciola said. “The Peace Corps recruits on campus every fall and spring. This is unusual. [For interested Wesleyan students], it jumpstarts the selection process.”
Sciola enthusiastically supports the Peace Corps and the undergraduates who plan to become involved with the group.
“A lot of students come to the CRC knowing that whatever their career is, they want to use it to make a difference…. They are incredibly smart, have excellent leadership skills, and really care about the world,” Sciola said. “[The Peace Corps] is also a great way to start getting involved in international relations.”
Cathy Crimmins, director of Community Services and Volunteerism, concurs.
“For the students that are currently applying to the Peace Corps, there’s a notion of committing a significant period of time to service,” Crimmins said. “From my conversations, it’s the ability to make a huge impact on a community in a short period of time and being involved directly with people [that draws students to the Peace Corps].”
She sees volunteer work of this nature as a different way of extending the activism that many students become involved with at Wesleyan.
“There is lots of awareness of international relations on campus, and a desire to work hands-on. This is not to diminish the significance of what you can do with awareness, but a different way of getting involved,” said Cimminsail.
Valerie Rose Belanger ’02 is one alumna for whom the Peace Corps came calling. She has been in El Salvador, working in the municipal development program, since June 2002, and will return to the U.S. this summer.
Belanger considers the experience “a worthwhile adventure in many ways, but hardly easy.”
“Transitioning from the vibrant, active community of the Wesleyan campus to a very poor, under-educated, isolated village in El Salvador has been challenging,” Belanger wrote. “One individual, with no money and few resources, cannot make substantial change and this is both a humbling and difficult thing to realize—to realize one’s own helplessness in the face of extreme poverty and destitution. I would recommend the experience, I am glad I have done it, and yet I am ready to head home.”
For students who want to get involved with a service organization after graduation, but aren’t willing to make the two-year commitment that the Peace Corps requires, there are many other options. Careers for the Common Good, a resource provided by the CRC, gives students information about jobs in the social service, public service, education, non-profit groups, and law.
“Everyone on the CRC staff has at one point been involved as a volunteer,” Sciola said. “We’re all very passionate about exactly these things.”
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