This year, the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) will break ground on the Peace Corps Commemorative Park, honoring the over 240,000 Americans who have served as Peace Corps volunteers, including 375 CC alumni. The park is meant to honor the spirit of the Peace Corps and to tell the stories of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCV).
Sue Hoyt Aiken ’62 was the first CC graduate to join the Peace Corps, leading the way for hundreds of fellow CC alumni to follow. After graduating from CC with a degree in English, Aiken completed training at Georgetown University and traveled to Ethiopia as part of the first cohort of Peace Corps volunteers to go there. Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie had requested secondary school teachers to teach in her country and almost 300 Peace Corps volunteers were sent. Aiken taught English in an all-boys high school outside of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, for two years.
Aiken was inspired to join the Peace Corps because of her family’s missionary background and her desire to help people. Aiken’s grandparents, father, and uncle had traveled from Kansas to Kenya to serve as Quaker Missionaries in the early 1900s, and Aiken was able to visit this mission during a break while in Ethiopia.
In 2026, 64 years after Aiken first volunteered, CC has produced 375 Peace Corps volunteers who have served all over the world.
“I am thrilled to know that so many other CC grads joined the Peace Corps and perhaps did so as an older adult or as a couple,” Aiken says. “The scope of opportunities widened as did the countries that sought out volunteers. Congress was proven wrong. The Peace Corps was—and is—a success.”
In 2024, CC was named a top Peace Corps Producing Institution and ranked seventh for top small colleges and universities producing the most Peace Corps volunteers. CC was also named a Top Producing Small College in 2025, when 13 CC alums were working as Peace Corps volunteers in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Kenya, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and the Philippines.
"Colorado College's consistent ranking among the nation's top Peace Corps-producing institutions reflects something profound about its educational mission and the values it instills in students,” says President and CEO Emeritus of NPCA Glenn Blumhorst, who also serves as the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation (PCCF) Chief Advancement Officer. “As we work to build Peace Corps Park near the U.S. Capitol, we're creating a permanent tribute to this tradition of service that institutions like CC have championed since President Kennedy's call to action. Sue Hoyt Aiken and the 374 CC alumni who followed her path represent exactly what the Peace Corps was designed to accomplish: Americans stepping forward to serve, learn, and build bridges of understanding across cultures. That legacy deserves to be celebrated and honored for generations to come."
President John. F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps in 1961, allowing Americans to volunteer around the world in pursuit of world peace and friendship.
The Peace Corps Park will include three hand-shaped granite benches that surround a map of the world and there will be a companion app and digital experience to offer audio, video, and stories that deepen the engagement with park visitors. The Peace Corps Park is an official federation monument and is owned by the National Park Service (NPS).
While there is not an exact date for when the Peace Corps Park will be finished and open to the public, as much depends on funding, PCCF plans to open this year.
CC is a strong supporter of the Peace Corps and is one of only a few liberal arts colleges in the country to offer the Peace Corps Prep Program, a pathway program jointly administered by the Career Center and the Advising Hub.
“Being both a Colorado College alum and a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer are distinct honors that I do not take lightly,” says Charles Hall ’22, who served as a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica from March 2023 through December 2024. “CC was deeply influential in my decision to pursue the Peace Corps, and both experiences continue to shape how I view the world. I am proud to be one of the 375 Tigers who served in the Peace Corps, and I hope this number will continue to grow.”
Hall says the Peace Corps Commemorative Park is a recognition of the Peace Corps volunteers who came before him to build a better world.
“It honors the people who sacrificed time, money, and, for some, their lives, in the name of their country,” Hall adds. “My service was deeply motivated by those who came before me. Being a Peace Corps Volunteer does not end after you return to the US; it is a continual commitment to service and fostering intercultural understanding that follows you for the rest of your life.”
Readers can keep up with updates on the Peace Corps Park through its website.
