The Peace Corps feels it is in good hands -- no matter who wins the presidential election.

President George W. Bush requested a 2005 fiscal year Peace Corps budget of $401 million, and both Sen. John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry have expressed support for the program in recent speeches.

"It seems like a win-win situation," Jason Bedford, the Penn State Peace Corps recruiter, said.

The Peace Corps is a federal agency that sends volunteers to impoverished areas around the world.

In his 2002 State of the Union address, Bush called on the Peace Corps to double its volunteers by 2007. He later requested that Congress allocate $359 million for the 2004 fiscal year.

But Congress does not give the Peace Corps all the money the president asks for, Peace Corps Director Gaddi Vasquez said in a March interview.

However, Bush's request that Americans do more service activities, coupled with some spending hikes, have raised the number of Peace Corps applicants and volunteers, the Peace Corps said in its budget request to the president.

"We have reached the largest number of volunteers in 29 years," Bart Kendrick, a Peace Corps spokesman, said.

There are 7,733 Peace Corps volunteers abroad today, according to the Peace Corps Web site, www.peacecorps.gov.

Locally, Bedford said there was a 15 percent increase in Penn State applicants between the 2002-03 academic year and last year.

About 60 Penn State graduates entered the Peace Corps in 2003, making Penn State the 16th largest producer of volunteers.

"And I think I have more applications now than I did this time last fall," Bedford added.

But some administrators and volunteers are rooting for Kerry. They feel he will be equally as, if not more, generous.

Jack Rayman, Penn State Career Services director and a former Peace Corps volunteer, said although Bush asked for large Peace Corps appropriations, he may not have pushed Congress hard enough.

"He seems philosophically supportive of the Peace Corps, but my guess is that Kerry would be more supportive," Rayman said.

Bedford said the Peace Corps has high hopes for Kerry in part because of Heinz Kerry's outspoken support of the program.

"Heinz Kerry has spoken about the Peace Corps," Bedford said. "She's originally from Mozambique, where we have programs, and she is very supportive -- or at least seems very supportive, and at least talked about us."

At the Democratic National Convention, Heinz Kerry praised the volunteers.

"[Peace Corps volunteers] convey an idea of America that is all about heart and creativity, generosity and confidence; a practical, can-do sense and a big, big smile," she said.

Kerry himself has called the Peace Corps "the most powerful symbol of non-military service in our history."

The rise in Peace Corps applicants and volunteers may also be in part due to the sluggish economy, Bedford said.

"The market definitely has something to do with it," he said, but he added there are a lot of other factors that have combined to produce the increase in applications.

Most of his interviewees had been considering the Peace Corps for a long time, Bedford said.

"Maybe the economy helped spark that interest," he said, "but it seems like the interest was there before the economy turned."