IU named in list of top Peace Corps contributors

With more than 40 participants, IU made its way onto a new list of schools with large contributions to the competitive international program.

IU ranked No. 25 on the Peace Corps Top Colleges 2010 list when compared to other schools with more than 15,000 undergraduate students. The University of Washington ranked No. 1 with 101 students involved in the Peace Corps, while IU had 42 students involved.

Student attendance varies from year to year, but for the 2009-10 school year 6 percent of the master’s School of Physical and Environmental Affairs class is participating or has participated in the Peace Corps.

In addition to the Peace Corps, IU students participate in two other programs in particular. Americorp and Teach for America both have returned attendance from IU. Out of all three programs, there has been a 13 percent return rate.

There are two ways graduate students can participate in the Peace Corps.

“The first way is through the “master’s international program, where students can take SPEA classes for a year, do the Peace Corps and then finish out their SPEA degree,” Douglas said.

Or, master’s students can do the Peace Corps first and then start their SPEA degree.
“We give benefits to Peace Corps volunteers,” Douglas said. “They have a lot of support.”

The Peace Corps program is a collaboration with SPEA, the IU Office of Student Financial Assistance, the United Way of Monroe County, the City of Bloomington, the Monroe County Government and a few others.

SPEA Peace Corps fellows are able to contribute to the social and civic service needs of the local community and surrounding region because they are supported by so many local groups.

A long process is required to be accepted into the Peace Corps program. Becca Cohn, a recent graduate of IU, is about to embark on her Peace Corps journey next month to Costa Rica.

“It’s a long application process,” Cohn said. “It was a year until I was accepted and knew which country I was going to.”

There were many medical checkups and essays to write as part of the process; plus, being a vegetarian requires more work. Cohn said the program wanted to make sure that she would be understanding of the many different foods that the people of Costa Rica eat.

In Costa Rica, Cohn will be an ecotourist, but she will not get the details on what that job entails until she gets to the country.

Cohn started thinking about the Peace Corps when she was at IU.

“I had a teacher who had been in the Peace Corps and she would tell us stories about her adventures,” Cohn said. “So that’s when I decided that was something I wanted to do.”

Another IU graduate, Ari Jacobvits, is currently on a Peace Corps mission in Kenya. He has been there since 2008 and lives about 40 kilometers north of Mombasa along the coast in a rural community called Kuruwitu.

Jacobvits works primarily on marketing and business development for his marine community-based project, which involves working on two Web sites about Kuruwitu.
The best part of doing the Peace Corps, Jacobvits said, was gaining fluency in Kishwahili and being able to live in an African village.