Ohio State Ranks 5th on Top Peace Corps Producing Universities in 2019

March 21, 2019

The Peace Corps has announced that Ohio State ranked No. 5 among large schools on the agency’s 2019 Top Volunteer-Producing Colleges and Universities list. There are 62 Buckeyes currently volunteering worldwide. Since the agency’s founding in 1961, 1,883 Buckeyes have served in communities around the world.

This is the fourth consecutive year that Ohio State has ranked among the top 10 large schools. During the last four years, Ohio State has been climbing in the ranks, appearing at No. 10 in 2016, No. 9 in 2017, and No 6 in 2018. 

“We have seen time and again that the colleges and universities that produce the most Peace Corps volunteers focus on cultivating global citizens in addition to promoting scholarship,” said Peace Corps Director Jody Olsen. “I am proud that so many graduates of these esteemed institutions leverage their educations to make the world a better place. They bring critical skills to communities around the world and gain hands-on, life-changing experience along the way.”

The Peace Corps has worked with the Office of International Programs in Agriculture, within the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, since 1974 to host an on-campus recruiter who educates Ohio State students about the application process and also to share their personal experience as a returned volunteer to the campus community. Laura Joesph, who served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin, currently serves as the Ohio State campus Peace Corps recruiter and can be reached at peacecorps@osu.edu.

The Peace Corps ranks its top volunteer-producing colleges and universities annually according to the size of the student body. View the complete 2019 rankings of the top 25 schools in each category and explore an interactive map that shows where alumni from each college and university are currently serving.

About the Peace Corps: The Peace Corps sends Americans with a passion for service abroad on behalf of the United States to work with communities and create lasting change. Volunteers develop sustainable solutions to address challenges in education, health, economic development, agriculture, environment and youth development. Through their Peace Corps experience, Volunteers gain a unique cultural understanding and a life-long commitment to service that positions them to succeed in today's global economy. Since President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps in 1961, more than 230,000 Americans of all ages have served in 141 countries worldwide.