UW-L students flock to Peace Corps more than most mid-sized schools

University currently has 14 in corps

Hot recruiting ground for the Peace Corps is apparently no further away than the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse campus.

The Peace Corps says the school is near the top of the list among mid-sized colleges around the nation for the number of volunteers that join the group.

It’s not surprising news to Karolyn Bald in the school’s career services offices, who knows the corps’ mission is appealing to many students.

“The peace core,” Bald said, “allows them to be able to reach other communities, get some more experience working with other cultures and kind of give back to the community that they think that’s been helpful to them as they’ve gone through their college career.”

Since the organization started in 1961, UW-L has sent 261 graduates on to be Peace Corps volunteers 14 are now abroad in some stage of a roughly two-year commitment.

“We have a really strong student population that is interested in learning about other cultures and experience life outside of UW-L,” Bald said.