"Peace Corps absolutely changed the direction and quality of my life," said Hansen, a community, agriculture, recreation and resource studies graduate student and Peace Corps recruiter. "I have yet to meet a returned Peace Corps volunteer that doesn't say the same thing."
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Lexi Hansen now calls East Lansing home after living in Morocco for two years
MSU reaches milestone in Peace Corps efforts
By LAURA COLLINS
The State News
Former Peace Corps volunteer Lexi Hansen now calls East Lansing home after living in Morocco for two years.
From 1997 to 1999, Hansen worked with women's health and hygiene issues through a Moroccan health program.
"Peace Corps absolutely changed the direction and quality of my life," said Hansen, a community, agriculture, recreation and resource studies graduate student and Peace Corps recruiter. "I have yet to meet a returned Peace Corps volunteer that doesn't say the same thing."
The opportunity for a life-changing experience, such as Hansen's, has been shared by other MSU students and alumni.
The university's participation has reached 2,000 volunteers since the Peace Corps' creation in 1961, making MSU the fifth university in the nation to reach that level.
That number reflects volunteers that were recruited on campus, as well as after graduation.
"It says something about the kind of student we attract to Michigan State University in the first place," said Jeffrey Riedinger, acting dean of International Studies and Programs. "People don't think the center of Michigan is a place that would be sending students or faculty around the globe. It says something very important about the training we provide here."
Riedinger said the educational ties to international ideas is something MSU stresses in its curriculum.
"Students have been overseas working and living and they say, 'I could do this for a longer period of time, in even more challenging circumstances,'" Riedinger said.
MSU is one of the few college campuses that has a Peace Corps recruiting office, which displays the university's ties with the organization, Hansen said.
"Peace Corps has been around for 45 years," Riedinger said. "We were involved in helping develop the concept."
On Thursday, Hansen was at the MSU Study Abroad Fair talking with different faculty members about opportunities to present the Peace Corps option to students in classrooms. She said she thinks the university is dedicated to graduating students who are interested in what is going on in the world.
Something Hansen said she didn't realize before getting involved was the value the experience can have on participants' futures.
"They have excellent connections, ways to look for a job, ways to further careers," she said. "I had no idea what a boost this would be for me professionally. Fresh out of graduating from school, in the U.S., I would be working in a mailroom, not running a conference, which is what I did (in Morocco)."
Provost Kim Wilcox said MSU's large involvement in the Peace Corps follows suit with other MSU programs. He said MSU was the first university to have a dean of International Studies and Programs, as well as having international agriculture and health programs around the world.
"I see it as an indication of two things - our commitment to international issues and commitment to service," Wilcox said. "The Peace Corps is both those things."
Laura Collins can be reached at colli313@msu.edu.
