Fordham Ranked No. 18 among mid-size colleges in 2016 for undergraduate alumni volunteers . (Fordham Ram Archives)
By Laura Sanicola
The Peace Corps announced today that Fordham University – for the first time – has appeared on the its 2016 Top Volunteer-Producing Colleges and Universities list. It is ranked No. 18 among medium-sized schools, with 15 Rams currently volunteering worldwide.
“The Peace Corps is a unique opportunity for college graduates to put their education into practice and become agents of change in communities around the world,” Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet said in a statement. “Today’s graduates understand the importance of intercultural understanding and are raising their hands in record numbers to take on the challenge of international service.”
Since the agency was founded in 1961, 446 Fordham alumni have volunteered with the Peace Corps.
Compared to other Jesuit colleges on the list with between 5,000 and 15,000 undergraduates, Fordham ranks below Georgetown (No.7) but above Boston College (No.20)
The Peace Corps reported that the New York Metropolitan Area is the top volunteer-producing metropolitan area in the country. It has 349 area residents currently serving overseas.
Topping the list of Medium Colleges and Universities is The George Washington University, with 43 alumni currently volunteering. American University and Western Washington University were ranked in second and third place, respectively.
Several Fordham University students serve in volunteer corps after graduation. Mary Frances Richardson, FCRH ’15, who volunteered through an episcopal organization and is currently working at an immigration firm in Boston, found Fordham to be supportive of post-graduate volunteering endeavors.
“As someone who loves services and Fordham University, I think it is a well-deserved rank,” Richardson said. “Fordham works very hard to ensure that its students are inspired to use the skills and knowledge they acquired to empower others and engage in whatever work they do ethically!”
Shannon Marcoux, FCRH ’16, a current Fordham volunteer planning to pursue full-time volunteer work after graduation, said that Fordham might appear even higher on a list where students volunteering in faith-based programs, such as the Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC), were factored into rankings.
“At Fordham, volunteer programs like JVC are often graduating seniors’ first choice for post-grad plans, not simply a backup if they don’t find another job,” Marcoux said. “I have never felt like an outlier or an outcast at Fordham for choosing to pursue a year or two of service after graduating. The Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice, Global Outreach and Campus Ministry do a great job of fostering this desire to serve and balancing that desire with discussions on the white savior complex, voluntourism, justice, and solidarity.”
Since 1961, The University of California, Berkley has produced the most undergraduate alumni volunteers – a total of 3,615, according to the Peace Corps.
The agency saw a 40-year high in applications in 2015 after the first full year that its historic application and recruitment reforms have been in place.
View the complete 2016 rankings of the top 25 schools in each undergraduate category here.
