The University of Tennessee at Knoxville has been chosen to be a regional recruitment office for the Peace Corps.

UTK is the No. 1 school in Tennessee and No. 4 school in the Southeast for producing Peace Corps volunteers.

Andy Ray, a UT graduate student, is the campus recruiter at UTK and Peace Corps representative.

"The graduate school at UT sent out an e-mail late this summer letting us know that Peace Corps and UT's Center for International Education were looking for a grad student that was also a RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer) and so I jumped at the opportunity," Ray said.

UT being the first university in the state of Tennessee to have a Peace Corps recruiter is very exciting
- Andy Ray, Peace Corps Representative, UT Center for International Education 

Ray is a 2001 graduate of Middle Tennessee State University with degrees in Spanish and recording industry. He is currently working on his master's degree in Spanish and Portuguese at UT.

Ray spent two years in Costa Rica serving in the Peace Corps. There he was in the Rural Community Development Program. During his time there, he built a roof-covered bus stop, taught English as a second language to many community members, and helped write proposals to increase safety at a local elementary school and purchase instruments for children.

"UT has the most alumni in the state that have gone on to become Peace Corps volunteers, with a little over 450 as of now," Ray said. "There are currently about 32 volunteers serving overseas that are UT alumni."

Peace Corps volunteers serve in 74 countries and work in areas such as education, youth outreach, community development, business development, agriculture and environment, health and HIV/AIDS awareness and information technology.

About 190,000 Peace Corps volunteers have served in 139 countries around the world.