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News Release

Last modified: Thursday, January 17, 2008

IU Bloomington back on top 25 list for Peace Corps Volunteers

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 16, 2008

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana University Bloomington moved up to 14th on this year's Peace Corps' list of the top 25 large schools producing Peace Corps Volunteers.

"It's definitely good news for IU," said Brett Kuhnert, the Indiana University Peace Corps campus representative and a graduate student in the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

IU Bloomington, which had been absent from the top 25 list for one year, moved up 13 places on the list. There were 53 IU alumni who volunteered for the Peace Corps last year, up from 44 the previous year.

Kuhnert, who was a Peace Corps health and sanitation extension volunteer in Morocco from 2000 to 2003, attributed the increase to recruiting by his office, collaboration with the Peace Corps Fellows/USA program at IU, and the recent resumption of activities by a Returned Peace Corps Volunteers group of students and area residents.

The IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs currently hosts 10 Peace Corps Fellows in the Peace Corps Fellows/USA program, which links classroom learning, volunteer experience and community service for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers.

Indiana University ranks first in the state of Indiana for the production of Peace Corps Volunteers. Since the inception of the Peace Corps in the 1960s, 1,411 IU alumni have joined the program, making it the No. 12 all-time producer of Peace Corps Volunteers.

IU graduate Kim Kanney, 25, of Coldwater, Ohio, recently returned to the U.S. after completing Peace Corps service. For two years, she worked in HIV/AIDS education in Ngololweni, Swaziland. She helped develop a library for a local high school and helped establish an income-generating youth garden.

Kanney, who plans to work for a nonprofit organization and attend graduate school, said she lived with a large family in a town filled with kind, generous and motivated people. Everyday life, she said, included "fetching water by carrying 20 liters of water on my head, washing clothes by hand, no electricity and bathing in a basin."

IU students can learn more about the Peace Corps by contacting recruiter Kuhnert at 812-856-1864 or peace@indiana.edu or by attending any of several information events.

• Feb. 21, 5:30 p.m., Ballantine Hall, Room 205.
• March 19, 5:30 p.m., School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER), Room 019.
• April 3, 7:30 p.m., Kelley School of Business, Room 203.

The IU Peace Corps office is in the Career Development Center at 625 N. Jordan Ave.

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