NORMAL - After Viktor Schrader spent more than two years as a Peace Corps volunteer on the South Pacific island of Samoa, he packed his bags and headed to Normal.

Now the 26-year-old Maine native and Northeastern University graduate is earning a master's degree at Illinois State University that builds on his overseas service experience. As a Peace Corps Fellow at the ISU Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development, Schrader is taking classes while working with local community groups.

"I like the combination of classroom work and professional practice," he said of the program.

On Thursday, the center marked its 15th anniversary with an event bringing current students, alumni and community members together at the ISU Alumni Center.

"ISU's was the first Peace Corps Fellows program in the nation to be focused on community and economic development," said Frank Beck, center director. Typically, such programs focus on other fields, such as nursing or soil sciences.

It started with three students but now serves about 15 each year, he said. Among 60 such Peace Corps graduate programs, ISU ranked sixth this year.

There were other master's programs for returning Peace Corps members, said Bob Hunt, a retired ISU political science professor who launched the ISU center in 1994. "But none were in this area of nonprofit management," he said.

In its early years, the program focused on Peace Corps Fellows, members who had completed their assignments and now were going to graduate school. A few years later, under the leadership of then-Director Mike Kelleher, it expanded to also offer a year of graduate study for students before they head to a Peace Corps assignment.

"That mix (of experiences) really creates an enriched environment," said Hunt.

Joe Lauchlan, a master's student from Detroit, agrees. After finishing studies at Bowling Green University in Ohio, he arrived at ISU last fall for economic studies.

He's not sure where he'll be assigned for the Peace Corps, but he said he's glad he came to the school first.

"It's been more than I expected," he said. In particular, Lauchlan said he benefited from classrooms where he interacted with and learned from veteran Peace Corps members, he said.

The ISU center is named for Bloomington native Adlai E. Stevenson II. The statesman, who died in 1965, was a two-time presidential candidate, Illinois governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

For more information on the center, visit www.stevensoncenter.org or contact Beck at (309) 438-7090 or fdbeck@ilstu.edu.

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Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development

• The center, named for Bloomington native Adlai E. Stevenson II, is the first Peace Corps Fellows/ USA program in community and economic development in the nation.

• The academic programs are: Peace Corps Fellows/USA Program (for returning Peace Corps volunteers); Applied Community and Economic Development Fellow Program (for others with community development experience); and the Peace Corps Master's International Program (for those going to the Peace Corps).

• Students complete a calendar year of graduate coursework followed by another year in a paid professional internship or Peace Corps training and service, depending on which program they are in,

• Students pursue master's degree in three areas: applied economics; political science; or sociology.

SOURCE: Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development