• According to 2010 statistics, U-M has for 10 years placed on the Peace Corps’ top 25 list of large universities nationwide producing Peace Corps volunteers.
• U-M ranks fourth as an all time producer of Peace Corps volunteers with 2,331 alumni having served.
• There are 73 U-M alumni now serving in the Peace Corps.
• The state of Michigan ranks eighth in the United States in sending individuals to the Peace Corps.
• Returned volunteers will have the option of earning master’s degrees at the university as Peace Corps Fellows. The Peace Corps and U-M have an agreement making U-M the only Fellows/USA program in Michigan.
• Notable returned Peace Corps volunteers include authors Kent Haruf and Paul Theroux, sculptor Martin Puryear, columnist Chris Matthews, U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, former governors Jim Doyle and Robert Taft, and former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala.
• As the first director of the Peace Corps (1961-65), R. Sargent Shriver created programs in 55 countries with more than 14,500 volunteers.
• The second director of the Peace Corps, Jack Hood Vaughn, was a U-M graduate (B.A. ’43, M.A. ’47). He served as director from 1966-69, and received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the U-M Board of Regents.
• President Lyndon B. Johnson fulfilled John F. Kennedy’s 1962 pledge that he would return to Ann Arbor by speaking at the May 22, 1964, U-M commencement.
• In 1985, Vice President George H. W. Bush spoke at the Michigan Union to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Peace Corps.
• John F. Kennedy asked U-M professor Samuel Hayes to create a report for him about a potential Peace Corps in September 1960.
• Three U-M graduates were among the first Peace Corps Volunteers to be sworn in by President Kennedy at the White House on Aug. 28, 1961.
• In the fall of 1961, U-M faculty members, led by Marvin Felheim of the English department, established the Peace Corps Training Center for volunteers heading to Thailand, the 13th training program of the Peace Corps overall.
