UW-Madison Ranks No. 1 For Peace Corps Volunteers For Second Year In A Row

For the second year in a row, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been ranked the No. 1 feeder school for the Peace Corps.

The UW-Madison’s Peace Corps tradition is so strong that Peace Corps Director Jody Olsen visited campus at the end of November to celebrate.

“We are so thrilled with the effort that the University of Wisconsin is making in really helping another generation of young people in their lifetime commitment to service,” Olsen said. “It means a lot to be able to say thank you to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.”

Specifically, she thanked UW-Madison for sending more volunteers across the globe to serve for two years than any other college or university the last two years. UW-Madison has appeared in the top five of the Peace Corps’ ranking for the past three years.

“The university has really embedded for many, many years this history of service: this intentionality of service, this intentionality of looking beyond the town, the city, looking beyond the state, looking beyond the country,” Olsen said.

Since the Peace Corps’ founding in 1961, volunteers have served in 141 countries across the globe. Currently, Olsen said, people are stationed in 64 countries, nearly half located in Sub-Saharan Africa. Peace Corps volunteers are also in much of the Balkans, about half of Latin America and in several countries in Asia.

While serving in a country, volunteers engage in projects that range from teaching to agricultural development, all while immersing themselves in the cultural contexts of the communities in which they’re embedded.

“They have the local language. They live in the compounds. They’re eating the food. They’re playing with the kids. They’re chasing the chickens,” Olsen said. “They’re doing everything that the community members are doing themselves, even as they’re a catalyst.”

Eighty-five UW-Madison alumni are currently volunteering with the Peace Corps, and 3,279 alumni have served since its founding in 1961.