Chicago in top ranks for Peace Corps volunteers

The University is the No. 1 Peace Corps volunteer-producing school.

With 34 College alumni serving as volunteers during 2007, Chicago ranked first on the Peace Corps’ annual list of schools with 5,000 undergraduates or less.

Chicago has appeared on the Peace Corps’ top schools list for the past eight years—in 2006, Chicago was ranked second, and in 2005, it ranked first.

“The news about the Peace Corps is wonderful, but not unexpected,” said Wallace Goode, Director of the University of Chicago Community Service Center and Associate Dean of Students in the University. “It is expected from the No. 1 undergraduate academic experience in the country.”

Max Brooks, Assistant Director of Employer Relations in the Office of Career Advising and Planning Services, added that “While both CAPS and the University Community Service Center work closely with students interested in applying to the Peace Corps, it is the students themselves who deserve the credit for the University’s new top ranking. Everyday, I meet exceptionally passionate, devoted, intelligent students, and it is precisely those qualities that make them such excellent Peace Corps candidates.”

Since the Peace Corps’ inception, 654 Chicago alumni have volunteered—making the University the No. 59 all-time producer of Peace Corps volunteers.

“Not-for-profit employers are a draw for a significant number of our students,” Goode said. “Co-curricular, experimental education and service learning continue to emerge as critical components of a world-class education.”

Christine Torres, Public Affairs Specialist for the Peace Corps’ Chicago regional office, said, “We have so much outstanding support from the University and have always recruited very hard at this institution. The caliber of student who graduates from the University of Chicago is exactly what the Peace Corps looks for,” she added.