UF was recently ranked as one of the top schools with Peace Corps volunteers.
The Peace Corps, a volunteer program run by the U.S. government, released its 2018 list of the top volunteer-producing colleges and universities Feb. 20. The list was divided into categories based on the number of undergraduate students. UF ranked No. 5 in the large colleges section, which included 25 schools with more than 15,000 undergraduate students.
Judging for the list is solely based on the number of people a university sends out, said Breton Homewood, the UF Peace Corps campus recruiter. Sixty-eight UF students are currently serving as volunteers worldwide, which is 10 more students than 2017. The top large school was the University of Wisconsin-Madison with 85 volunteers.
UF has been ranked in the top five for eight consecutive years, Homewood, 33, said. However, Homewood said the competition with other colleges has increased over the years.
This year, the university ranking above UF, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is only ahead by two volunteers. The only two other Florida universities on the list are the University of South Florida, which ranked No. 19, and Florida State University, which ranked No. 25.
It’s competitive to get into the Peace Corps program, Homewood said. Most applicants need a college education or 10 years of career experience to get in.
“To be in the top anything on a list like that is awesome,” Homewood said. “It tells me a lot about Gainesville. I think it really speaks to the University of Florida and people’s commitment to serve just says a lot about our community.”
Students who walk into Homewood’s office and show interest usually get accepted, he said. The Peace Corp Prep program, which helps to prepare UF students for volunteering, gives UF students an advantage.
Douglas Steinbach, a 23-year-old UF mechanical engineering senior, said he’s graduating this semester and then moving in June to volunteer for the Peace Corps. He will be teaching math in Sierra Leone in West Africa.
Steinbach said he’s unsure if UF got the high ranking because students like the specific volunteering experience or because they’re hard workers.
“Maybe it says that a lot of people dislike where they’re going with their life so they just want to take a break and learn about themselves,” he said, “Or maybe it’s a good thing because UF produces hard workers.”
