Three Washington colleges lead nation in Peace Corps volunteers

When Samantha Russell graduated from Western Washington University two years ago, she took her background in marine biology to Fiji, where she has planted mangroves on the shoreline, helped farm sea cucumbers and moved pigpens away from the ocean to prevent polluting runoff.

Russell and more than 200 graduates like her are the reason why WWU, the University of Washington and Gonzaga University topped the list of American colleges that produced the most Peace Corps volunteers last year.

It’s the first time since the program began ranking schools that all three categories were led by schools in a single state.