Whitman has captured a spot on the Peace Corps Top Colleges and Universities list for 2009. With fifteen alumni currently serving as volunteers, Whitman ties for 20th place in the Small Colleges and Universities category, a rank shared with five other schools. Because this rank is shared, Whitman’s placement on the list is highly variable and can change with only a slight increase or decrease in number of volunteers. Last year, for example, Whitman did not make the list, despite a similar quantity of volunteers.    

Since the creation of the Peace Corps in 1961, exactly 289 Whitman alumni have volunteered in the organization. Geographically speaking, Whitman alums currently serve through the Peace Corps in every major region that the organization is in, except the Pacific. This year, Whitman alumni are working in: Azerbaijan, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, Honduras, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Philippines and Senegal.

After an information session in Reid Campus Center on Thursday, February 19, Regional Peace Corps recruiter Matthew Hogue described the typical Peace Corps volunteer as adventure-seeking and wanting to contribute to the global community. The diversity of people at the event itself was indicative of Peace Corps attracting a figurative cross section of the population: listeners at the event, about twenty five in all, were both male and female, old and young, and of various racial backgrounds. Hogue attributed Whitman’s strong showing of volunteers to a set of core values fostered among Whitties.  

“Generally, volunteers have that interest in having an adventure, experiencing something new and also have that intrinsic value of wanting to help people… the type of people who come to Whitman seem to have those values, or it’s developed while they’re here,” Hogue said. “I think this school caters to that.”  

Hogue also identified various benefits of Peace Corps service.

“The long-term benefits are the exposure you get to the international setting. You learn how to interact and work within another culture, you’re typically going to be learning another language, and beyond that you have graduate school opportunities,” said Hogue.  

First-year Brett Konen, who attended Thursday’s info session, is considering Peace Corps service after gaining real-world work experience. However, she would still like to hear more volunteer testimonials.  

“If I did Peace Corps, I would wait until I’m a little older, maybe early thirties. I think by then it’d be a nice break from the norm,” Konen said. “Before that, though, I’d like to talk to more people who’ve done Peace Corps about their personal experiences, because so far I’ve heard mixed reviews.”

In fact, it is not only Whitman students who identify with the Peace Corps. Assistant Professor of History Jacqueline Woodfork served as a volunteer for two years in Liberia following her undergraduate education.  

“I ended up in a place that I knew very little about, and that certainly increased my desire to learn more about West Africa, Liberia and Africa as a whole,” Woodfork said.  

For Woodfork, her experience in the Peace Corps was life-changing, as is typical for many volunteers.

“I think one of the things about Peace Corps is that volunteers tend to get more out of it than they give. I don’t want that to sound wrong, but it is such an enriching experience for most people that they really find that they got as much, or sometimes even more, than they actually gave,” said Woodfork. “It’s in the top three best decisions I ever made in my life…and that ranking changes depending on the day, sometimes it’s the best.”