Diversity for Peace Corps Recruiting

It is important to keep in mind the ever growing and increasingly diverse population of the United States when you work as a recruiter for the Peace Corps. One of the long-term goals of the organization is to have a percentage of currently serving minority volunteers that reflects the percentage of minority students enrolled in American colleges and universities. This goal was explained to me during my campus recruiter training at the Chicago Regional Peace Corps Office in August 2006. Focusing efforts on more diversity, whether pertaining to ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, is something that many PCVs and RPCVs care about. Increasing the number of diverse applicants is something that would make minorities feel more welcome in the Peace Corps and it would also show the world that the United States has highly qualified people serving from a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds.

As a gay RPCV who worked as a Peace Corps campus recruiter at a large Midwestern university this past school year, the diversity topic was one from our training that remained clear in my mind all throughout the year. Our campus has a large number of minority groups within the student population. I was hoping to tap into this rich diversity and do my small part to help the Peace Corps achieve its diversity goals. My desire to help diversify the applicant pool stems from my Peace Corps service. I felt alone and isolated at times as one of a handful of openly gay or lesbian PCVs serving in Madagascar. I oftentimes wished that there were more GLBT volunteers to talk with about my experiences living in a culture where homosexuality was a crime under the age of 21 and being gay was taboo and underground. I did have wonderfully supportive friends and allies within the volunteer pool and staff ranks, and I did make and do maintain friendships with several supportive Peace Corps friends.

One of the things one does as a campus recruiter is to give class talks and presentations to various student groups and organizations on campus in hopes of recruiting interested students and/or local community members. During General Information Meetings (GIMs), I tried to have a variety of RPCV guest speakers discuss their experiences to provide interested people with a spectrum of experiences. One of the most memorable was that of an African-American RPCV discussing his service in Eastern Europe in which he was again an ethnic minority. This was in contrast to the experiences I recounted as being in the minority as the only white man working in my town in Madagascar. These kinds of stories allow people to see how diversity and cultural adaptation is a large part of the Peace Corps experience.

A very beneficial event that I attended once each semester was the Multicultural Job Fair. This career fair organized by the Office of Minority Student Affairs (OMSA) was specifically designed to attract different minority student groups and show them various job opportunities following graduation. It was always reassuring to have students stop by the Peace Corps table, talk about volunteering, and sign up for more information. I also worked at the OMSA tutoring center and placed informational flyers in the building announcing upcoming Peace Corps information meetings.

Despite these small efforts, I must be honest and say that aside from these positive experiences, there was not much of a response to my inquiries about whether or not certain minority student groups were interested in having me conduct informational meetings just for them. I did correspond with several leaders of groups on campus and received some initial interest, but when following up on these leads, the groups either did not respond or simply did not follow up. I tried contacting groups like the GLBT Resources Office and some ethnic minority student associations, but I was not able to conduct information meetings just for these groups. I did meet individually with interested minority students and members from the local area during my walk-in office hours. I also addressed some questions and concerns for GLBT and other minority students during the GIMs on campus.

I hope that future Peace Corps campus recruiters will have more success in their efforts to recruit from within these diverse groups and get more feedback. One thing for recruiters to keep in mind is to make appointments with leaders of these organizations and then outline goals for recruiting diverse applicants. When the organizations have a better idea of what Peace Corps is looking for, they may be more receptive to information meetings for their campus organization.

The Importance of Diversity for Peace Corps Recruiting