For the 12th year, the Peace Corps has ranked the University of Mary Washington among the nation’s top-producing colleges for alumni now serving as Peace Corps volunteers.
UMW ranks 8th on the Peace Corps’ list of small schools or institutions with fewer than 5,000 undergraduates. According to the Peace Corps, UMW currently has 11 alumni serving around the world.
UMW has been included among the top 20 of the Peace Corps’ list of top-producing small schools since 2005. In all, more than 230 UMW alumni have served the 27-month commitment around the world since the Peace Corps’ inception in 1961.
One former Peace Corps volunteer, Jennifer Bangoura, graduated from UMW in 2008 with degrees in art history and French. Two months after graduation, she boarded a plane to Mali, the home country of Malick Sidibe, the photographer she studied for her art history senior thesis.
When Bangoura decided to join the Peace Corps, “I had a few goals in mind. I wanted to use my French degree, travel and give back to a community – all at the same time. Applying to join the Peace Corps was a no-brainer.”
The biggest lesson she learned in Mali, Bangoura said, “is that people are people. It’s ridiculously simple but so easy to forget. I lived with a host family who wanted all the same things people want for their families here in the United States. They wanted an education for their children and opportunities to work and ways to engage in and improve their communities.”
Bangoura now lives in Hyattsville, Md., with her husband, a native of Guinea, and their 1-year-old daughter, and works in international education. “For current UMW students considering joining the Peace Corps, I say go for it! Two years sounds like a long time but goes by in the blink of an eye.”
“I like to think my story relates to people who both think they know what they want to do and to also reassure those who don’t have a plan,” she said. “Things will work out in ways you can’t imagine!”
The Peace Corps ranks its top volunteer-producing colleges and universities annually according to the size of the student body. For the full list of top-producing colleges and universities, visit http://www.peacecorps.gov/media/forpress/press/2626/
Manzo Dembele says
There are some truly special people in the world and Jennifer is one of them. She gave of herself without limit every day in Mali. Jennifer had a special focus on helping rural women and their families in Mali. It has been my privilege to have known her in Mali and she has been an inspiration to my humanitarian career. I still sense the sacrifice Jennifer did by leaving Virginia for Mali as I read this post she published on her blog at: http://jenniferinmali.blogspot.com/2009/07/who-would-have-thought.html
Life is still calling! How far will we go like Jennifer? In the end, it is a life changing journey!