Black Colleges Lag in Producing Peace Corps Volunteers

The Peace Corps released its list of the colleges and universities that produce the most graduates serving as volunteers in the organization. The University of Washington leads all American educational institutions with 113 graduates currently serving in the Peace Corps. The University of Wisconsin, the University of Colorado, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Michigan State University round out the top five educational institutions with the most Peace Corps volunteers.

The Peace Corps has three different categories for schools: those with more than 15,000 undergraduates, those with 5,000 to 15,000 students, and schools with fewer than 5,000 students. There are no historically black colleges or universities among the top 25 producers of Peace Corps volunteers in any of the three categories.

Howard University, the historically black educational institution in Washington, D.C., currently has 11 graduates serving as Peace Corps volunteers. This is the most of any black college or university. All told, there are only 63 graduates of HBCUs who currently serve in the Peace Corps. There are 12 individual colleges and universities that have more alumni serving in the Peace Corps than all black colleges and universities combined.