UW leads Peace Corps with business grads

UW–Madison leads the nation this year in business school graduates who are volunteering in Peace Corps programs.

Seven graduates of the university’s School of Business are serving in business development programs overseas, tops among America’s colleges and universities, the Peace Corps announced this week.

“I think today’s business students know how important practical experience is,” says Jon Simon, a UW–Madison graduate student in finance and the Peace Corps’ new representative on campus. “It’s a great opportunity to use some of the skills acquired in business school immediately. Peace Corps volunteers are quickly given more responsibility than they’d ever see in the U.S.”

The business school alums are among 111 UW–Madison graduates serving in the Peace Corps during 2000. Together they make up the largest current number of Peace Corps volunteers from a single campus.

For the past decade UW–Madison has led the nation in the number of Peace Corps volunteers, and in the 40-year history of the organization almost 2,400 UW–Madison alumni have served in the Peace Corps.

To generate interest among current students, Peace Corps recruiters and former volunteers will participate in career fairs Monday and Tuesday on campus and staff an information table in the Memorial Union Sept. 20-21.

Former Peace Corps volunteers, meanwhile, will share stories and slides about their experiences overseas on Sept. 20-21 in the Memorial Union starting at 7 p.m.