In 1997, Jeremy Bloom grew tired of academia. After graduating from Grinnell College in Iowa, he went looking for an adventure.

After joining the Peace Corps, he found his adventure with a group of ex-guerillas in Chalatenango, El Salvador. Together, they went hiking to search for relics from the country’s civil war.

‘These guys were genuine guerillas,’ he said. ‘A plane would fly overhead and they’d duck for cover.’

Later in the day, the group discovered the wreckage from a plane crash and carried it back to put in a museum of other post-war material.

More Syracuse University graduates are seeking out experiences similar to Bloom’s. Nineteen SU graduates joined the Peace Corps in 2003, said Bart Kendrick, public affairs specialist for the Peace Corps’ regional office. SU’s graduate participation ranks 24th nationally among schools with 5,001 to 15,000 students.

The cause for the increased enrollment is difficult to pinpoint, Kendrick said.

‘A lot of times, it’s just the number of people who happen to be interested that year,’ said Johan Keane, Peace Corps campus recruiter for SU and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Keane, a SUNY-ESF grad student studying forest ecology, volunteered for the Peace Corps in Bolivia. He said the numbers from SU and SUNY-ESF are generally random, but unemployment can also contribute to a higher number.

Some professors think that the larger number is caused by SU’s strong study abroad program.

‘Studying abroad would give students confidence that they can work and be reasonably productive in a foreign country,’ said James Bennett, professor of political science and international relations in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. As a Peace Corps member, he was stationed in Turkey from 1968 to 1970.

Elane Granger, the associate director of admissions and student services with the Division of International Programs Abroad, agrees that studying abroad may contribute to the number of students who join.

‘It’s like going to a banquet and liking the first thing you taste so much that you want to taste everything else on the table,’ she said. She also said that study abroad and the Peace Corps programs share similar qualities.

‘I see the Peace Corps as service learning without the structure of courses,’ she said.

Keane noted that students who ask about the Peace Corps commonly have a background in international or language studies. And while 83 percent of volunteers have an undergraduate degree, he stressed that academic knowledge isn’t the pivotal characteristic that he’s looking for.

‘The big thing we look for is openness to different cultures and the ambiguity of the situation,’ he said.

Published on January 21, 2004 at 12:00 pm