The University of Vermont was the setting for an important announcement made last week by Peace Corps director Carrie Hessler-Radelet, accompanied by a small entourage from the volunteer organization. Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy and UVM provost David Rosowsky were also on hand.

Hessler-Radelet announced to an audience of about 50 in the Silver Maple Ballroom of the Davis Center that the number of schools in its Peace Corps Prep program, which offers students undergraduate coursework and community service preparing them for work in international development, now numbers 26, a historic high. UVM joined the program this year. 

“We’re excited to collaborate with schools like the University of Vermont to prepare civic-minded students for careers in international development,” Hessler-Radelet said.

The announcement could have been made anywhere, but for the third time in recent years, the Peace Corps announced important news at UVM.    

What drew Hessler-Radelet and her colleagues to northeastern Vermont wasn’t the state’s scenic beauty in late summer, it was UVM’s and Vermont’s strong track record of Peace Corps service.  

With 857 alumni who’ve served in the Peace Corps, and 25 currently serving, UVM ranks seventh among mid-size schools for its participation rate. Vermont ranked #1 in the nation in 2014 for the number of Peace Corps volunteers per capita.

“Both Vermont and the University of Vermont are real rock stars in our eyes,” Hessler-Radelt said.

The session was billed as a recruiting event as well as a celebration of the milestone, and Hessler-Radelet’s sales skills did not disappoint.

One of her chief examples of the Peace Corp’s ability to transform volunteers and communities alike was Matt McLaughlin, a former volunteer and current student in UVM's Masters in Public Health program. 

In Senagal, McLaughlin was part of a small Peace Corps team that reduced malaria rates by 90 percent in the village where the volunteers were based by proactively interviewing villagers, many of whom were asymtomatic but still able to transmit the disease, in their homes, then diagnosing and treating victims on the spot. Africa’s National Malaria Control Program was so impressed by the results, it implemented a 10-village trial and then a region-wide pilot, which reduced malaria rates by 88 percent. 

“They are changing the face of community-based diagnosis and treatment for the world,” Hessler-Radelet  said. “Matt is from Burlington and from UVM and you all should be very, very proud,” she said.

In introducing Hessler-Radelet, Leahy said, “There are too many in this country whose answer to things is, 'We’ll simply use the military might of the United States.' I would rather show the world the kind of people we are. I want that to be the way we enroll goodwill around the world. It lasts a lot, lot longer."

The audience also heard from class of '14 alum Taylor Dorn, who spoke to the group via Skype from Panama, where she is currently serving as a Peace Corps volunteer.  

“We're very proud to partner with the Peace Corps in this critically important work, and we’re delighted that we've enhanced our already robust relationship,” Provost Rosowsky said in his remarks. “Together we’re changing lives, and we’re changing the world.”