The Peace Corps has announced that the University of Vermont ranked No. 3 among medium-sized U.S. schools on the agency’s latest listing of top 25 volunteer-producing colleges and universities for 2025. Currently, 19 Catamounts are serving in 14 countries worldwide, including Cameroon, Ecuador, Georgia, Guatemala, Jamaica, Nepal, North Macedonia, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Senegal, Timor-Leste, Uganda, and Zambia.

UVM has a long history of producing Peace Corps volunteers, having made the top 25 list for most of the last quarter-century. This year maintains the university’s 2024 placement in the No. 3 spot. The Peace Corps groups Colleges and universities into three categories by undergraduate population. UVM is listed in the medium category, which covers institutions that have between 5,000 and 15,000 undergraduate students.

“The culture of UVM, as a placed where students want to really want to make a difference, plays a big part in our success in fostering so many volunteers,” said UVM Peace Corps Strategic Campus Recruiter Arminda King. “UVM students want to bring about lasting, positive change in the world, and they find the Peace Corps to be a program through which they can do that.”

The Peace Corps is an independent U.S. government agency that trains and places volunteers in partner countries worldwide. The agency was founded in 1961 by President John. F. Kennedy and was authorized by Congress through the Peace Corps Act that same year. In the years since the Peace Corps’ founding, UVM has produced a total of 905 volunteers.

“Colleges and universities from across the nation are providing us their talented alumni to serve in countries around the globe,” said Peace Corps Chief Executive Officer Allison Greene. “These top-ranked schools understand the transformative power of public service and human connection. The Peace Corps builds invaluable intercultural communication skills, a broadened worldview, and adaptive leadership qualities needed in the American workforce today.”