Evergreen State College among Peace Corps’ 2019 top volunteer-producing schools

Peace Corps announced today that The Evergreen State College ranked No. 13 among small schools on the agency’s list of top volunteer-producing colleges and universities in 2019. There are 11 Geoducks currently volunteering in countries around the world. 
 
Evergreen has ranked among top small schools in the last five years. It is one of eight Washington campuses on the list this year.
 
“We have seen time and again that the colleges and universities that produce the most Peace Corps volunteers focus on cultivating global citizens in addition to promoting scholarship,” said Peace Corps Director Jody Olsen. “I am proud that so many graduates of these esteemed institutions leverage their educations to make the world a better place. They bring critical skills to communities around the world and gain hands-on, life-changing experience along the way.”
 
Since the Peace Corps’ founding in 1961, more than 250 alumni from Evergreen have served abroad as volunteers. In 2018, Washington ranked No. 8 among states with the highest number of Peace Corps volunteers, and a total of 9,968 Washingtonians have served since 1961.
 
“Evergreen emphasizes ‘learning across significant differences,’ and I think this fits well with Peace Corps, which requires learning and sharing across significant cultural differences,” said Alexander Butler, an education volunteer in the Philippines who graduated from Evergreen in 2018. “The non-traditional interdisciplinary learning approach at Evergreen prepared me well to draw on many different skills and resources for my projects here in the Philippines. As I build a library and remedial reading space, I work collaboratively with the teachers and community to come up with solutions to problems that arise, as well as drawing from our many shared experiences—just as I did in my Evergreen programs.”
 
The Peace Corps ranks its top volunteer-producing colleges and universities annually according to the size of the student body. Below, find the top five schools in each category and the number of alumni currently serving as Peace Corps volunteers. View the complete 2019 rankings of the top 25 schools in each category here and find an interactive map that shows where alumni from each college and university are serving here.

*Modified from a Peace Corps press release.