The Peace Corps recently ranked Wesleyan University sixth among the country’s small colleges for sending graduates to the organization.
Wesleyan’s rank has risen considerably in the past few years. Last year, the number of Wesleyan graduates that volunteered with Peace Corps increased by five students, to a total of 24 students. The relatively high position suggests a strong commitment to international service.
The top-five ranked small colleges were University of Chicago, Dartmouth College, University of Puget Sound, University of Denver and Middlebury College.
In 2003 the University was ranked number seven, with 19 Wesleyan graduates working with the Peace Corps that year.
Whether the rankings reflect a significant change in the number of graduates present in the Peace Corps or not, Wesleyan is well represented when compared to its larger counterparts. Wesleyan has more Peace Corps workers than schools twice its size, such as Duke, Marquette and the University of Vermont.
According to Bartel Kendrick, Public Affairs Specialist at Peace Corps, 147 Wesleyan graduates have worked with Peace Corps since it was founded.
“Out of the number of students who have volunteered from Wesleyan, Niger has the largest representation from [Wesleyan], with seven people having gone there,” Kendrick said.
The Peace Corps places volunteers in areas of need, with some preference based on skills and language ability. This placement policy has brought Wesleyan students to work in countries, as Kendrick said, “literally from A-to-Z.”
Michael Sciola, the Director of the Career Resource Center, said Wesleyan students have been interested in the Peace Corps since its inception in 1961.
“Wesleyan has always been one of the top sources of Peace Corps volunteers,” Sciola said. “In fact, on the occasion of the Peace Corps’ fifth anniversary in 1966, Wesleyan was recognized for its 43 alumni who had joined and gone overseas.”
As the organization’s website states, the Peace Corps mission is to enrich the lives of people in developing countries.
According to Kendrick, volunteering with the Peace Corps can open up career opportunities in many different fields. Certain schools, Kendrick said, form a sort of niche in the types of fields their students go into. Though students from all majors are eligible for employment in the Peace Corps, certain colleges are known for sending graduates into specific fields. While colleges like Wesleyan and Yale send many students to work as teachers and Non-Government Officials, Syracuse University sends more students to work on environmental projects than any other university.
After spending time working on one of the wide range of projects in a foreign country, from teaching to business to providing education about AIDS, Peace Corps participants will not only become proficient in a foreign language or improve the prospective skills they obtain in the field they are placed in, but they often gain important connections after college.
“Returning Peace Corps members have an incredible network of PC alumni,” Sciola said. “Business and public sector organizations are eager to benefit from their experience and skills developed overseas.”
Sciola also noted that the Peace Corps gives students a non-pretentious way to view the world.
“It is a great opportunity to immerse yourself into a part of the world that you won’t see from the deck of a cruise ship or from a luxury coach—which, unfortunately, is the way most Americans see the world,” he said.
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