At first glance, Erin Hayba appears to be a typical Penn State alumna -- she comes from a family of Penn Staters in Northern Virginia, and she enjoys running and hiking.

But there's one component that makes her atypical -- she's currently educating deaf Kenyan children about the dangers of HIV/AIDS as a member of the United States Peace Corps.

Penn State, the 11th ranked large university in the country for producing Peace Corps volunteers, currently has 59 alumni working overseas. A university with more than 15,000 undergraduates qualifies as "large."

Penn State shares the ranking with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, according to a listing released last week.

Penn State also placed 23rd in a new category spotlighting the number of volunteers serving with an advanced degree.

Since the Peace Corps was founded in 1961 by John F. Kennedy with the mission of training men and women in developing countries while fostering understanding through cultures, Penn State has produced 746 alumni that have served in 104 countries. Alumni are currently working in approximately 42 countries in Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe and the South Pacific.

Hayba chose to serve in the Peace Corps because it was a unique opportunity to serve her country, help others, gain experience and travel. Reasons like these are common, Penn State Peace Corps recruiter Jason Bedford said.

The organization focuses on assisting in five areas: education, agriculture, health, business and information technology and environment. Living overseas often provides a risk factor as well.

"I had no idea where I would be sent or what I would be doing," Hayba wrote in an e-mail message from Kenya. "They sent me an invitation in late July 2005 to come and serve in Kenya doing HIV/AIDS works with the deaf. I had no experience with either but decided to take up the challenge."

On Sept. 15, 2005, Hayba arrived in Africa and spent the first three months being trained in Kenyan Sign Language and Swahili in a village named Kitui. She lived with a family without electricity or plumbing. Since then, she has moved to another Kenyan village and teaches at the Kerugoya School for the Deaf.

"I absolutely love my work," Hayba wrote. "It is not easy, and I work hard to overcome people's stereotypes of Americans, get accepted into the community and also communicate in their languages. Even with these difficulties, I love my job more each day I am here."

Penn State has been rising in volunteer rankings over the recent years, moving up one place from last year and five spots since 2003. This can be attributed to recruiters like Bedford, who also served in Honduras from 2000 to 2002, and Jack Rayman, director of Penn State Career Services, who served in Malaysia from 1967 to 1970 and continually urges people to explore the Peace Corps as a career option.

On the small island of Borneo, Rayman taught some 300 students subsistence agriculture in hopes he could increase the country's 36-year life expectancy.

"We were trying to get more protein into their diets, [school children] ate three meals of white rice each day," Rayman said. "It was not a matter of acute starvation, but malnutrition."

Rayman said for the 22 years he has been at Penn State, he has always tried to make the Peace Corps a bigger priority for students.

"I think it's a combination of being adventurous, being somewhat altruistic ... and feeling like you can make a difference," he said. "It's important to provide exposure to as many Penn State students as we can ... it can be a powerful life changing experience."