The Peace Corps can back its list of accomplishments with some pretty impressive empirical evidence. When it was first established in 1961, volunteers took assignments in only six countries. By the end of the first year, the group had grown to 900 volunteers in 16 countries. Fast forward 50 years, and the organization has, to date, dispatched more than 200,000 men and women to 139 countries ranging from Bahrain to Brazil. These days, around 8,000 members actively volunteer each year, which, though remarkable, falls short of John F. Kennedy's original goal, which was to have 100,000 volunteers in the field at any given time.