University Provost Scott Bass and Peace Corps Director Aaron Williams signed partnership documents last Wednesday.
“[The event was] great to increase the existing partnership between AU and the Peace Corps,” said Stephen Chapman, the public affairs specialist for the Peace Corps Mid-Atlantic Regional Recruiting Office.
Students interested in the Master’s International Program would have to apply and be accepted to both the SIS Graduate School and the Peace Corps.
Students would then spend one year at SIS working towards their degree and then serve overseas as a Peace Corps volunteer for 27 months. They would then return to AU to complete their academic project or any other outstanding coursework, according to Chapman.
AU sent the second-most graduates from medium-sized schools to the Peace Corps in 2009, according to a Peace Corps release. There are currently 51 AU alumni serving as volunteers, and 780 AU alums have served in the Peace Corps since its nearly 50 years history.
Out of medium-sized schools, the highest number of graduates to go into the Peace Corps came from George Washington University in 2009. There were only two more volunteers from GWU than from AU that year, according to a Chapman.
GWU is one of over 80 other colleges and universities that already participate in the Master’s International Program.
Although this partnership between SIS and the Peace Corps is new, the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Language and Foreign Studies has offered a master’s in Teaching English as a Foreign Language with the Peace Corps for 11 years, according to Chapman.
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