This year, 75 University of Oregon alumni are volunteering in the Peace Corps, bumping the University up one spot to the No. 6 ranked college in the nation for most active members.
“Traditionally we’ve been in fourth or fifth place and I was disappointed we went to seventh, but it’s nice to see it’s going back up,” said Sarah Schrock, the Peace Corps representative for the University and graduate teaching fellow.
The top 25 schools that produce the most Peace Corps volunteers are ranked according to size of the student body. The University of Oregon is listed as a large school, a category composed of institutions with 15,000 or more undergraduates. The No. 1 ranked University of Wisconsin-Madison has 28,217 undergraduates, whereas the University of Oregon only has 16,475 undergraduates as of fall term of 2005.
“The fact that we’re number six is great because we’re not a big University but we’re lumped” with the larger schools, Schrock said.
Service in the Peace Corps lasts two years, and there are financial benefits to the service, said Schrock.
Volunteers are provided with a living stipend while serving that is equal to the average local wages, which creates a better understanding of their situation, Schrock said.
Volunteers are also given $6,000 at the end of their service to help volunteers get back on their feet, Schrock said.
Since the Peace Corps creation in 1961, 862 alumni have joined the Peace Corps, making the University the No. 30 all-time producer of volunteers.
Schrock said University of Oregon alumni join the Peace Corps both because the University fosters a giving mentality through its emphasis on community service and multiculturalism, and because those who are inclined to join the Peace Corps are attracted to this University.
Being No. 6 means that the University “fosters a student body that is committed to global issues,” she said.
Marc Schlossberg, assistant professor in the Department of Planning, Policy and Public Management, volunteered in the Peace Corps in Fiji from 1995 to 1997 and said he wasn’t surprised that the University is among the top producers of Peace Corps volunteers.
“I think it’s really indicative of the types of students that come to the University of Oregon,” he said.
Despite having eight fewer active members, the University still managed to move up one spot from last year. Other schools dropped as well, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, dropping from 129 to 104.
Schrock said that overall, the number of Peace Corps volunteers is rising, because more people are joining later in life rather than immediately after graduation.
Schlossberg said the amount of volunteers often fluctuates within the Peace Corps, so the decline from one year to the next is not indicative of a trend of decreasing enrollment.
“You can’t look at these things from one year to the next because it’s so variable,” he said.
Schlossberg said there are three goals Peace Corps volunteers try to accomplish: To help, to exchange cultures and to bring what they learn back home.
“That cross cultural exchange is a big part of what we do,” he said.
He said his experience has also taught him about how to deal with stress, and that before he left, he viewed the United States with a negative light.
“Now that I’ve come back I see things a little more nuanced,” he said. “I can appreciate how it works.”
Schrock also served in the Peace Corps in Kenya from 2000 to 2002 and said it was a challenging but rewarding experience.
“I had always had sort of a desire to live and work overseas, and I was really drawn to service and what poverty meant,” she said. “I think it’s a fantastic experience for a lot of people, but it takes a lot of determination and a lot of will.”
Schrock said it was this experience that inspired her to work to recruit others for the Peace Corps.
“I think your Peace Corps experience stays with you for the rest of your life,” she said.
Both she and Schlossberg said the most meaningful thing about working in the Peace Corps was how much they learned about themselves.
“You end up learning a lot about yourself,” Schlossberg said.
Schrock agreed.
“It’s an experience of a life time. It has profound impacts on your prospective of the world,” she said.
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