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From campus to Corps By Dwight Woodward Rick Hensel graduated in June with a bachelor's degree in international studies and returned to Ashville, Ohio, where he grew up fixing tractors and baling hay. But his time at home was only a hiatus. Hensel continued a long Ohio University tradition in early September when he flew to Africa for a 27-month stint in the Peace Corps.     Rick Hensel is serving in the Peace Corps in Africa. He's living in Mauritania in western Africa and receiving training in sustainable agriculture for three months before starting two years of work in agriculture. The assignment, he's been told, is one of the Peace Corps' toughest because of the country's Saharan climate. "I'm ready for it," Hensel says with a determined smile. "It's a good way to learn about another culture, to become fluent in a language (French) and to help people." Ohio University was ranked 21st in the nation this year in the annual listing of universities that produce the most graduates who go on to the Peace Corps. Thirty-seven graduates currently serve in the volunteer program. The experience is bound to have a dramatic impact on Hensel's world view as it has for hundreds of graduates before him, says Pat Reilly, MSJ '85, vice chair of the National Peace Corps Association in Washington, D.C. Reilly taught English in the 1970s as a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia. "As the Marines say, the Peace Corps allows you to 'be all you can be,'" she says. "It started as adventure and travel that turned into real work." Reilly returned to the States and worked as a Peace Corps recruiter in New York City before deciding to pursue her master's at Ohio University, where she doubled as a campus recruiter for the Corps. She now spends her days working for the Corps and her nights as a copy editor at The Washington Post. Reilly is collaborating with another alumna, Cori Welbourn, BSJ '92, executive director of the Peace Corps' 40th anniversary celebration, on a D.C. event that will attract many of the more than 160,000 former volunteers. Perhaps in another 10 years, Hensel will be joining them for the Corps' golden anniversary.