Letters & Opinion
Letter to the Editor
Students, consider answering the Peace Corps’ call to service.
Did you know that UW-SP has produced 384 U.S. Peace Corps volunteers over the years?
A representative of the Peace Corps will soon visit our university to encourage and inspire a new set of prospective volunteers to enter this wonderful form of global community service.
We are a leader, not just in the UW System, but among all American universities, in the percentage of our students who take part in international programs. In these days of financial uncertainty, the need for service across the globe only grows stronger. I would encourage any of our students to consider service in the Peace Corps as an excellent way to gain a life-changing experience abroad.
The upcoming visit, February 18–20, continues what another national Peace Corps staff member recently told us is one of the strongest university-Peace Corps relationships in the nation. UW-SP embodies the dream President John F. Kennedy held for American men and women to serve, even to endure hardship, on behalf of peoples across the globe.
Peace Corps volunteers venture into the developing world to engage in long-term community development, educational, business development, environmental, agricultural or information technology projects. They represent the very best American values and bring home priceless experiences that help shape and guide the rest of their lives.
Currently, 17 UW-SP graduates are in the Peace Corps, at work in 13 different countries including Guatemala, Lesotho, Namibia, Paraguay and Vanuatu. Our volunteers typically enter their service right after graduation.
Our university has also committed to continue its nearly 20-year relationship with the Peace Corps’ Masters International Program, in which College of Natural Resources students take graduate classes here on campus for a year and then leave for 27 months of work overseas, for which they earn their remaining graduate credits.
It is a great and particularly American quality to answer the challenging call to serve others. If you meet a UW-SP alumnus or a faculty member who has given a portion of his or her life to the Peace Corps, be sure to say “thank you” for their service to the world. And please give your own consideration to service in the Peace Corps. Find out more at www.peacecorps.gov.
-Chancellor Bunnell
