Krista Fillion isn’t surprised that the University of Vermont keeps landing on the Peace Corps’ Top Volunteer-Producing Colleges and Universities list. This year, it ranked No. 3 among medium-sized schools, just behind The George Washington University and American University.
“The type of student that UVM attracts is generally mission driven, wants to make a difference, doesn’t just live to work, but lives for community,” said Fillion, a UVM alum who completed her two years of Peace Corps service last December.
She’s one of 29 alumni who served over the past year — in Botswana, Cameroon, Ecuador, El Salvador, Georgia, Guatemala, Jamaica, Moldova, Morocco, Nepal, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Senegal, Timor-Leste, Uganda, and Zambia.
Fillion was stationed at a primary school in North Macedonia. She taught English and worked with a local journalist to launch a student newspaper.
It was everything Fillion had hoped for in a Peace Corps experience. She bonded quickly and deeply with her host family, fell in love with the community, the food, and the landscape. “The newspaper that we started together is still going on without me, which really means a lot to me,” she said. “That sustainability aspect is really important to the Peace Corps.”
Life After Peace Corps
Returning home to Marlborough, Mass., late last year “was definitely an adjustment,” said Fillion. She missed her Macedonian mountain village and its slower pace of life.
But she’s landed on her feet. Fillion now works as an operations associate at a non-profit called Food Link, which rescues high-quality food that would otherwise be discarded from grocery stores, farms, even Amazon, and distributes it to under-resourced communities in the Greater Boston area.
“I joined the Peace Corps not fully knowing where I wanted my career to go,” said Fillion, who majored in Community and International Development, with a minor in Food Systems, while she was at UVM.
Those two years in North Macedonia, she said, helped her to clarify her goals: to work for a mission-driven cause, and to keep working with volunteers. Her job at Food Link fits the bill, and it lets her practice some of the skills she strengthened in the Peace Corps, namely her adaptability. “At Food Link, we have a plan for the day — and then we hear about seven pallets of celery about to go to waste, and it’s like, OK, how are we going to rescue that food?”
The Peace Corps is “a good way to start your career,” Fillion said. “You get to put your student loans on hold. You get transferable skills. And, at the end of the day, you gain confidence.”
Adventure Awaits
Aidan Holmes ’26 will embark on his Peace Corps experience in El Salvador at the end of this summer. Holmes, who grew up in Washington, D.C., is majoring in Community Development and Applied Economics, but he doesn’t yet have a clear vision of what he wants in a career. One thing he knows for certain, he said: “I believe in giving back through service.”
UVM has a robust network of former Peace Corps volunteers. Since the agency’s founding in 1961, more than 1000 alumni have served. They often return to campus to present on their experiences, introducing current students to the program and creating a cycle of fresh interest.
Holmes had known about the Peace Corps since high school, but when he took a micro-economics class with Professor Travis Reynolds, himself a former Peace Corps volunteer, it started to feel like a viable next step after college.
“For me, the biggest part was having those ex-volunteers around,” said Holmes. “It helps you envision how people can succeed after they return from the Peace Corps.”
When he applied, Holmes said, “I’m willing to go anywhere, do anything.”
That openness to volunteering, said Fillion, is part of the culture cultivated on the UVM campus. And she hopes it continues to inspire others to consider the Peace Corps.
The benefits of the experience go deep, she said. “It changes your worldview, makes you really understand that the U.S. is not the center of the world, and that we have a lot more in common than we think.”