Contact: Brent Arbes, Peace Corps representative at Western, (360) 650-3017; peacecorps@wwu.edu
BELLINGHAM - Western Washington University ranks sixth among the top medium-sized colleges and universities with alumni serving as Peace Corps volunteers in 2008.
"Western has a long history of service to others and our alumni continue this strong tradition in many ways, as this Peace Corps ranking clearly demonstrates," " said WWU President Bruce Shepard.
Since the inception of the Peace Corps, 750 Western alumni have served as volunteers. Forty Western alumni currently are serving as Peace Corps volunteers. Western dropped from third among medium-sized schools in 2007. In 2006, WWU was ranked fourth.
Western Peace Corps representative Brent Arbes said a large number of Peace Corps volunteers from Western are graduates of Woodring College of Education and Huxley College of the Environment, as well as students studying English as a second language and foreign languages.
"We are lucky to have such strong programs combined with a University that stresses the importance of service. It is a wonderful combination. Western should be proud," Arbes said.
In the rankings for medium-sized schools, George Washington University tops the list. Western also has more alumni serving than a number of notable schools, including Boston College, Miami University, Georgetown University, University of Notre Dame, Brown University, University of Pennsylvania and Yale University.
Colleges and universities are ranked according to size of the student body. Small schools are those with less than 5,000 undergraduates, medium-sized schools are those with between 5,001 and 15,000 students and large schools are those with more than 15,000 students. To view the entire list, visit the Peace Corps Web site at Peace Corps
Information about the Peace Corps will be available at the International Opportunities Fair at Western, which is 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 22 in the Viking Union Multipurpose Room.
Peace Corps information also will be available at Western's Winter Career Fair, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12 in the Mac Gym of the Wade King Student Recreation Center..
Other highly ranked schools in Washington include the University of Washington, ranked first among large schools, and Gonzaga University, sixth in the small schools category
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