MIDDLEBURY, Vt.—Middlebury College remains near the top of the rankings among small colleges and universities in the number of alumni serving as Peace Corps volunteers, according to the annual list released this week.
Consistently in the top 25 over the years, Middlebury, with 17 alumni now in the ranks of the Peace Corps, is tied for 16th—with Colgate, Tufts, Wake Forest and Macalester—in the 2008 rankings for small schools (5,000 or fewer students).
Another Peace Corps volunteer this year came from among the alumni of Middlebury's summer Language Schools, and there are nine volunteers who attended programs at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
Since the Peace Corps’s inception 46 years ago, 430 Middlebury alumni have joined the ranks, making it the No. 102 producer of volunteers of all time. Fifty nine students from the Monterey Institute have served.
In the category for the largest schools (with more than 15,000 undergraduates), the University of Washington again topped the list, with 113 volunteers in the field. Second place went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with 99 volunteers. Among medium-sized schools (5,001-15,000 undergrads), George Washington University led the way, with 68 volunteers, to 65 for the University of Virginia. The University of Chicago was tops in the category for small schools, with 34 alumni currently serving as volunteers.
“The Peace Corps provides a unique opportunity for graduates to use their education and skills, and apply them in the real world,” said Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter. “I am proud that there are 1,192 institutions of higher learning currently represented by Peace Corps volunteers serving in 74 countries. These institutions can be proud of the contributions that their graduates are making in the lives of others around the globe.”
Previous year’s rankings for 2007 and 2006 (PDF)—Middlebury was eighth in 2006 with 21 volunteers and 15th last year with 18—can also be found at the site.
Although it is not a requirement, the majority of volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since its founding 46 years ago have been college graduates. Ninety five percent of current volunteers have undergraduate degrees, and 11 percent possess graduate degrees.
Since 1961, about 190,000 volunteers have served in the Peace Corps, working in such diverse fields as education, health, HIV/AIDS education and prevention, information technology, business development, the environment, and agriculture. Currently, there are more than 8,000 volunteers abroad, the most in 37 years.