Last week, the Peace Corps announced the top volunteer-producing colleges and universities for 2014. DU was ranked number one among graduate schools for the highest number of graduate students that are actively involved in serving for the Peace Corps.
“Among graduate schools, the University of Denver leads the rankings with 23 currently serving volunteers, climbing up from second place in 2013,” the press release stated.
With 20 graduate students in 2013 actively volunteering in multiple countries, DU has now passed its number-two ranking spot behind the University of Florida.
Alongside the news of their ranking, the DU Peace Corps Community (DUPCC) celebrated National Peace Corps Week last week, aiming to spread the word to undergraduate students on campus about the program and what it means to volunteer.
“National Peace Corps Week [is] an annual celebration that honors the establishment of the U.S. Peace Corps in 1961 under President Kennedy and the first Peace Corps Director Sargent Shriver,” said David Boggs, president of DUPCC.
During the week, the community organized tabling daily from 12-2 p.m. on the Driscoll Bridge, giving out information packets about the Peace Corps, playing games and talking about their service and programs of study. They also arranged for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) to visit undergraduate classes and talk about their Peace Corps service and the countries they served in, along with their personal experiences in relation to the process as a whole.
Adam Stuart and Mark Homco, two RPCVs that spoke to undergraduate classes, shared a presentation with the students in Professor Robert Uttaro’s class on African Politics. Stuart is a Master’s student in International and Intercultural Communications and returned in 2012 from volunteering for the Peace Corps in Malawi. Homco is a Master’s student in International Development and returned from volunteering in Botswana in 2012. In the African Politics class, both spoke on their training, homestay towns, cultural learning experiences and the assignments they received and carried out during their two-year stays abroad.
The DU Peace Corps Community is directly affiliated with the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, which the Peace Corps website says “is a leader among institutions of higher education that prepare students for transnational careers in the public, private and nonprofit sectors.”
“The DU Peace Corps Community [is] a student group of RPCVs and Peace Corps Master’s International (PCMI) students who work together extending the Peace Corps mission here at the university and in the Denver community,” said Boggs.
According to the DU Peace Corps website, the PCMI program allows students to earn a graduate degree while serving overseas, and the Paul D. Coverdell Fellows Program provides returned Peace Corps volunteers with scholarships, academic credit and stipends toward an advanced degree after they complete their service.
Nathalia Cubillos, PCMI student in International Development, said she chose to come to DU for her Master’s degree because of its PCMI program.
“When I decided to come back to school, I started my research by looking at the universities that had the PCMI program, and the Josef Korbel School of International Studies immediately caught my attention for its quality,” said Cubillos. “The idea of acquiring professional experience while serving communities in need was the perfect scenario for me. However, I wanted the experience to have the greatest impact possible both on the community abroad and on my career, and the knowledge that I am acquiring in Korbel will make me more experienced and qualified to better serve the community I will be living in.”
Cubillos has been formally nominated as a Peace Corps Community Economic Development volunteer and will leave for volunteering on June 15, 2015.
“I am extremely excited about serving with the Peace Corps because it is a professional organization that has historically provided quality assistance to communities abroad,” said Cubillos. “The stories other RPCVs have shared with me have only made my excitement increase, and reassure me that this is what I want to do.”
According to the Peace Corps press release, college graduates who serve in the Peace Corps return back from their time volunteering with a competitive edge in the job force.
“They have cross-cultural, leadership, language and community development skills along with a global perspective,” it said.
Representing over four continents and 36 countries, DU has historically been an active contributor to the Peace Corps, even before its official community establishment on campus in 2003.
