By Val Bauer
This year, The University of Puget Sound is ranked in second place out of small undergraduate schools for producing United States Peace Corps volunteers, with 13 total volunteers currently in the Peace Corps. Puget Sound shares this ranking with the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA. Puget Sound and Mary Washington are ranked behind Denison University in Ohio.
In 2016, the University was tied for number one with Gonzaga University, with 18 total volunteers from each school. According to Puget Sound’s website, the University “consistently ranks among the top five in the number of alumni serving in the Peace Corps.” Furthermore, the University has ranked in the top fifteen since 2001.
This consistently high ranking is attributed in part to the nature of Puget Sound students, Career and Employment Services’ (CES) Employee Relations Manager, Sue Dahlin, said.
“Students at Puget Sound are often service-oriented with a commitment to social justice and an adventurous spirit! Those are all qualities that would be invaluable to an organization like the Peace Corps.”
“More than 75 percent of [Puget Sound] students participate in community service, among the highest participation rates in the country,” according to Puget Sound’s website.
In 2017, Loggers are volunteering in Peru, Guyana, Panama, Ghana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, M o z a m b i q u e , M a d a g a s c a r , Ethiopia, Kyrgyz Republic and Indonesia, according to an interactive mapon Peace Corps’ website.
Puget Sound is also one of 65 u n d e r g r a d u a t e schools partnered with the Peace Corps. Last year, Puget Sound was officially identified as a Peace Corps prep school, due to our “strong commitment to the Peace Corps and service,” Dahlin said.
The University offers a Peace Corps Prep program for students who want to become Peace Corps volunteers. It is “a certificate program for undergraduates that centers on one empowering question: How can you prepare yourself to be the best Peace Corps volunteer you can be?”, according to Peace Corps’ website. Participation in the program provides applicants with “a competitive edge when applying for Peace Corps service.”
“The Peace Corps Prep program is another way our agency helps undergrads prepare for volunteer service after graduation,” Peace Corps Supervisory Public Affairs Specialist David Reese said in a statement released to The Trail. “Completing the program prepares students for service and also helps them with their application.”
In addition to the advantage students have in applying for future volunteer positions, participation in the Peace Corps Prep program is also a beneficial experience in applying for jobs. “Students who join the Peace Corps have qualities that future employers are looking for: a desire for service, taking risks and a global focus,” Dahlin said in a KNKX Interview sent to The Trail by CES’ Communications Coordinator Kris Hay.
The program focuses on four “core competencies that are critical to the intercultural fieldwork Peace Corps Volunteers do,” the website says. These core competencies are listed on Peace Corps’ website: sector-specific skills; foreign language proficiency; intercultural competence; and professional savvy and leadership.
Puget Sound specifically addresses these competencies through requirements which
students must fulfill in order to be qualify for the Peace Corps Prep program. First, students must “complete three courses that align with a specific work sector” as well as “accumulate a minimum of 50 hours of volunteer or work experience” in that sector. The six work sectors as designated by Peace Corps are Education, Environment, Youth in Development, Health, Agriculture and Community Economic Development.
In addition, students must take three Intercultural Competence courses. Students must attain “professional and leadership development” by getting their resumes critiqued by Career and Employment Services (CES), attending a CES workshop or class on interview skills, and having a “significant leadership experience.”
Foreign language skills are recommended in the case of placement abroad. Spanish- speaking countries require two 200-level courses, and French-speaking countries require one 200-level course. Other countries have “no specific requirements, but language skills are a plus.”
As a primarily white campus — according to Forbes’ website, 74.9 percent of enrolled students identify as white — some may worry that our high ranking is problematic in that it reinforces America’s cultural stereotype of the ‘white savior.’ However, Peace Corps “actively seek a broad representation of America and seek a diverse pool” of volunteers, Dahlin said.
The Peace Corps Prep program “has a diversity focus that allows a university to use its resources to recruit diverse Americans so all Peace Corps volunteers reflect the diversity of America,” Reese said. “This includes not only race and ethnicity, but also age (50+), first generation, LGBTQIA, veterans and students with disabilities.” Furthermore, Peace Corps “only goes to locations where they have been invited by that community,” Dahlin said. “Communities put in an application and tell the Peace Corps what they want a volunteer to help them with.”
