D.C. has the highest per capita number of Peace Corps volunteers currently serving abroad compared to the rest of the nation, according to Stephen Chapman, Peace Corps public affairs specialist.
The District has 2.2 volunteers out of every 25,000 residents, surpassing last year's top state, Vermont, he said. This year, D.C. has 51 volunteers in the field, a 20 percent increase over last year, Chapman said.
Chapman attributed the high percentage of volunteers from D.C. to the large number of universities in the area with an international focus. Peace Corps regularly recruits on college campuses, holding meetings about once a month at larger universities such as AU, he said. Ninety-three percent of Peace Corps volunteers have at least an undergraduate degree.
Last year, 41 AU alumni served in the Peace Corps, a government organization that sends volunteers to 70 countries to work in education, business, environment, youth development, agriculture, health and HIV/AIDS education.
Bethany Arnold, an AU alumna, will travel to Senegal in March to start her 27 months of volunteer work with the Peace Corps.
Arnold said she joined the Peace Corps because she was not ready to take an office job.
"[The Peace Corps] gives me a chance to experience the world," she said.
Arnold has many friends at AU who recently joined the Peace Corps, she said.
"AU has a commitment to service," she said.
The District is the political hub of the world and attracts people who are already interested in the same subjects as many members of the Peace Corps, said Kylee Burgess, an AU alumna and Peace Corps volunteer who recently returned from Mali.
"If you want to do international relations, you either go [to D.C.] or New York, and New York's too cold for me, so D.C. it was," she said.
D.C. is also a popular destination for returned Peace Corps volunteers, Burgess said. Out of the 30 volunteers in her group, about 10 are currently in D.C., she said.
Many volunteers return to D.C. because of opportunities to work in international development, Chapman said. AU's master's degree in international development is popular with returned volunteers, he said.
Many returned volunteers take advantage of the Peace Corps' non-competitive eligibility in federal jobs, which allows the federal government to hire those who meet minimum qualifications without going through the standard process, Chapman said.
The Peace Corps will have a social in the Battelle-Tompkins Atrium at 4:30 p.m. today for returned volunteers and interested applicants. Those interested should R.S.V.P. to Elizabeth Doerr at edoerr@peacecorps.gov.
