Clark University is number 10 on the Peace Corps’ 2015 rankings of the top volunteer-producing colleges and universities in the U.S. Clark is ranked on the list of small universities and colleges, with 11 alumni volunteering worldwide.
Since 1961, 239 Clark alumni have served in the Peace Corps, but the University last appeared in the national ranking in 2012, when it held no. 20 for small schools. A complete rankings list is available online.
Clark alumni serve in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Malawi, Morocco, Panama, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga and Zambia, working in disciplines that include education, health and youth development.
“My central focus is in child literacy,” said Christopher MacAlpine-Belton, a 2009 Clark graduate who is a secondary education volunteer in the Dominican Republic. “My goal is to ensure that local Dominican children become completely literate – being able to read and write with proficiency in Spanish – and that they develop critical thinking skills. I have had the chance to develop reading materials for use in the classroom and promote the use of electronic resources in my barrio – a fundamental part of working with a population in an urban context.”
In 2010, Clark University’s Graduate School of Management (GSOM) became a partner with the Paul D. Coverdell Fellows program. Through GSOM, returned Peace Corps volunteers can work toward an M.B.A. with various concentrations, including social change. The social change track comprises courses in social entrepreneurship, environmental policy and community development. Participating Fellows receive at least a 50 percent reduction in tuition with the possibility for further merit aid.
Founded in 1887 in Worcester, Massachusetts, Clark University is a liberal arts-based research university addressing social and human imperatives on a global scale. Nationally renowned as a college that changes lives, Clark is emerging as a transformative force in higher education today. LEEP (Liberal Education and Effective Practice) is Clark’s pioneering model of education that combines a robust liberal arts curriculum with life-changing world and workplace experiences. Clark’s faculty and students work across boundaries to develop solutions to complex challenges in the natural sciences, psychology, geography, management, urban education, Holocaust and genocide studies, environmental studies, and international development and social change. The Clark educational experience embodies the University’s motto: Challenge convention. Change our world.
