The Peace Corps released its annual list of top volunteer-producing colleges and universities Tuesday. With 37 volunteers, Dartmouth ranked first in the small school category.
This marks the first time Dartmouth has reached the top spot for small schools, defined as institutions with 5,000 or fewer undergraduates.
Other schools listed at the top include University of Wisconsin at Madison in the large school division with 104 volunteers, with University of Washington only two volunteers behind.
University of Virginia had the most volunteers in the medium school division, with 80 volunteers.
The mission of the Peace Corps is to help countries lacking certain resources by providing rural areas with trained men and women. Participants serve 27 months at a time in their assigned countries.
Christopher Rubinate '03, a former Corps volunteer, called his time spent in Ukraine with the program "the most rewarding and fulfilling experience" and said he would do it again without a second thought.
He stressed, however, that undergraduates need to be realistic about the work they will be doing overseas and should have a "strong desire to work and help others in circumstances that can be far from ideal."
While in Ukraine, Rubinate taught secondary school in a small town where previously no foreigner had lived for an extended period of time.
While acceptance into the Corps is competitive, Rubinate said that admittance is based more on motivation than what the student acheived while at Dartmouth.
"You need not be involved in a dozen different community service groups at Dartmouth to be a good Peace Corps volunteer," he said.
Rubinate also said that students should try to travel abroad, not necessarily on a Foreign Study Program to London or Paris, but rather to "places that are off the beaten path without many tourists," which would force students to learn to adapt to new cultures.
Dartmouth Career Services pushes their "Careers for the Common Good" initiative, encouraging students to consider post-graduate work in not-for-profit fields or in other value-driven work, according to assistant director of employer relations Monica Wilson.
"Dartmouth students like the combination of community service, travel, and becoming immersed in new cultures," Wilson said.
She added that upon return home, volunteers have access to a large network comprised of other past volunteers.
"The Peace Corps is excellent at providing support for returning volunteers," she said.
While some students who join the Corps originally had no idea what they wanted to do after graduation and others always planned to join, Wilson said that the "common thread" among all volunteers is that they want to do something meaningful for those who are less fortunate.
In June 2005, The Princeton Review listed Dartmouth among its Colleges with a Conscience, a list that includes only 81 American colleges.
The College was also recently recognized in The New York Times for its participation in Teach for America after 11 percent of Dartmouth graduates applied for the program.
The Corps, currently celebrating its 45th anniversary, has placed 182,000 volunteers in 138 countries since its inception. Today, 7,180 volunteers serve 77 countries.
