For the second year in a row, Bowdoin made the Peace Corps's top 25 list for small schools with the largest number of volunteers serving abroad. There are currently 14 Bowdoin alumni serving as volunteers in 12 countries, earning the College a 24th place ranking on this year's list. In 2006, when Bowdoin was ranked 20th on the list, Peace Corps Regional Recruiter Christopher Lins noted that if the rankings were done on a per capita basis, Bowdoin would fall in the top five of all schools in the country.
Bowdoin's ranking comes at a time when the number of Peace Corps volunteers is at an all-time high. According to the Peace Corps's New England Regional Office's Public Affairs Specialist Joanna Shea O'Brien, the Peace Corps currently has 7,749 volunteers serving in programs throughout 74 countries.
Nearly all Peace Corps volunteers are college graduates; 95 percent of Peace Corps volunteers have received their bachelor's degree, and according to Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter, 1,192 "institutions of higher learning are currently represented by Peace Corps volunteers serving overseas." Bowdoin stands as the 179th all-time producer of Peace Corps volunteers, with 237 Bowdoin alumni having served in the organization. University of California, Berkeley, ranks first, with a total of 3,326 volunteers since 1961.
"Peace Corps always does very well on campus in terms of attracting students," said Director of Career Planning Center (CPC) Tim Diehl. "Along with Teach for America, it is one of the leading employers of Bowdoin graduates because those programs appeal to the 'Common Good' ideals of Bowdoin students. They are great ways that our students can give back to their community."
Students interested in the Peace Corps, Teach for America, or other similar pursuits often work with CPC Career Counselor Karen Daigler, who helps students assess whether such programs are right for them. Daigler also works with students throughout the application process, which lasts an average of nine months.
Rebecca Fertziger '03 served as a Peace Corps health volunteer in Panama from 2004 until 2006. She described her application process as extensive and somewhat tedious, with mandatory fingerprinting, security checks, as well as medical and dental evaluations. However, Fertziger described her experiences in Panama as eye-opening, and well worth the work required to apply for the program.
"The Peace Corps was a fantastic experience," she said. "I had heard that in the Peace Corps, I would likely experience the best and worst moments of my life, and I can attest to that being the case. But it gave me a whole new perspective on development and charity, and my career choices have been largely based on my experiences in Panama."
Fertziger, who majored in Spanish and Sociology at Bowdoin, realized after studying abroad in Chile that she wanted to return to Latin America after graduation.
"I have always been interested and engaged in volunteer activities, and Peace Corps seemed like an ideal opportunity to blend my interest in volunteering with my newfound passion for Latin America and living abroad," she said.
Throughout her stay in Panama, Fertziger lived in a remote, extremely poor and indigenous community in the Western mountainous regions of the country. She worked as a health promoter, giving educational talks on water purification, nutrition, hygiene and family planning, and working in schools giving literacy tests to both children and adults.
Fertziger said that her experience in the Peace Corps made a huge impact on her life.
"I can adjust to pretty much any environment now and can better relate to people from different socioeconomic backgrounds, cultures, languages, and lifestyles. I am a much more patient, flexible, and resilient than I could have ever imagined. I am currently pursuing a Master's in Public Health at Johns Hopkins, which was a choice I made as a result of the dire health conditions I observed in my community and throughout Panama."
According to O'Brien, the Peace Corps screens applicants very carefully before accepting them, making sure that volunteers will be able to handle the enormous shift in environment and the responsibility involved in serving with the program.
"We seek compassionate and community-minded people willing to commit two years of their lives to help others and work in a culture in some ways vastly different from the culture in which they grew up in the United States," said O'Brien.
New England Peace Corps Recruiter Josh Strauss has observed students with many of these characteristics in the nine times he has visited Bowdoin since August 2006.
"I love the campus," he said. "I'm always impressed by the vitality of the student body, and the faculty and staff, and the 'can do' attitude which thrives at Bowdoin," Strauss said.