Northern Arizona University has again made the top 25 list for medium-size schools producing Peace Corp volunteers. With 27 alumni currently serving, NAU ranks No. 20. Since Peace Corps’ inception in 1961, 513 alumni of NAU have joined the ranks of the Peace Corps, making the university the No. 74 producer of volunteers of all time.
“There’s an amazing quality of students who come here and are interested in serving abroad,” said Robyn Wilson, Peace Corps recruiter for northern Arizona. “This ranking speaks volumes about not only our students, but also NAU professors who are stressing the importance of a worldly perspective,” Wilson said.
The only other Arizona school that made the top 25 rankings was the University of Arizona, which ranks No. 24 among large schools with 43 of its alumni currently volunteering.
Adding a new category this year, Peace Corps also has tabulated rankings for volunteers with advanced degrees. Northern Arizona University is ranked No. 47 in the nation with five alumni with advanced degrees currently serving as volunteers.
Peace Corps ranked schools according to the size of their student bodies. Small schools are those with less than 5,000 undergraduates, medium-size schools are those between 5,001 to 15,000 undergraduates, and large schools are those with more than 15,000 undergraduates. To view the entire 2006 “Top Producing Colleges and Universities” list, please visit the Peace Corps web site. Last year’s rankings, for comparison purposes, can be found here.
Since 1961, more than 182,000 volunteers have served in the Peace Corps, working in such diverse fields as education, health, HIV/AIDS education and prevention, information technology, business development, the environment and agriculture.
For information or to invite Wilson to make a presentation to your students about serving in the Peace Corps, call (928) 523-5583 or e-mail peacecorps@nau.edu.