Though the paths they took to get there differed, three women out of a class of 114 _ Margaret "Peggy" Donnelly, Susan Lettis and Elizabeth "Beth" Renckens _ have found themselves in foreign lands serving more than two-year terms as Peace Corps volunteers.

"Elizabeth, Margaret and Susan are examples of the quality of volunteers who serve and have made the Peace Corps a success for over four decades," said Tracy Waldman, a press relations intern with the Peace Corps in an email.

Waldman spent some time corresponding via email with the three girls in December after Robin Lettis, Susan’s mom contacted the Peace Corps press office and told them about the unique situation.

"This is certainly rare and may be the only instance where three currently serving volunteers came from the same graduating class," Waldman said. "Certainly it has to be one of the only times it has happened in a graduating class that is this small."

Margaret Donnelly, daughter of Robert and Amy Donnelly of Cooperstown, is an agricultural volunteer serving in the small village of Namanji, Nicaragua, which is in Central America.

The 24-year-old works on a variety of projects, which involve reforestation issues, construction of chicken coops and working with organic fertilizers to help develop quality protein corn.

Donnelly wrote that her village has no electricity and is made up of subsistence farmers who grow corn and beans.

"I can’t imagine doing anything else right now," she said.

While working to improve the agricultural and farming techniques of the people is an important part of her responsibility in Namanji, Donnelly’s mother Amy said her daughter believes her role serves more than that purpose.

"She sees her mission as enabling people to get together as a community, decide what their needs are and identify organizations that can help them and ask for aid," said Amy Donnelly Tuesday.

After graduating from Cooperstown, Peggy Donnelly spent a year in Finland as a Rotary exchange student. When she returned to the states, she entered Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. In college, she spent some time in different internships at an embassy, with an environmental non-governmental agency and with a professor. But before joining the working world, she decided she wanted more experience and ended up joining the Peace Corps. Her term began in August 2005 and she is expected to be finished this November.

Susan Lettis, daughter of Robin Lettis of Cooperstown and John Lettis of North Carolina, is in the African nation of Benin, located next to Nigeria on the South Atlantic Ocean.

She’s working as an education volunteer and her primary project is teaching English at the local middle school in the village of Gomparou.

She teaches four classes twice a week, with class sizes ranging from 50 to 80 students.

More significantly is a project Lettis, 24, has initiated through the Peace Corps to build a school in Benin. Robin Lettis said Tuesday that she was helping her daughter raise the $13,970 it would take for her to build a three classroom, one office structure.

Nearly 30 students were turned away from each of two schools in the Pikire district because of overcrowding and space concerns, wrote Lettis in a project proposal.

"These students had no other option but to stay home and try to enroll again the following year. Additional classroom space is a pressing community need," she wrote.

While she doesn’t have electricity or running water, Lettis wrote that she lives in a very nice house made up of three cement rooms and a tin roof. She also has a small garden area.

Like Donnelly, Lettis spent a year after high school as a Rotary exchange student in Hungary. In 2001, she entered Syracuse University but kept in touch with her friends from Hungary, returning to the country one summer as an intern with a company specializing in alternative fuels production and soil remediation.

After graduating in 2005, she spent some time with friends and family before heading to Benin in July. She is scheduled to return this October.

Elizabeth Renckens, daughter of Jim and Polly Renckens of Cooperstown, is in the African nation of Togo, which shares a border with Benin. She is an environmental volunteer working on reforestation projects and working to raise bush rats.

"Deforestation is a devastating problem here in Togo," Renckens wrote. "Women will walk up to two hours a day to find wood for cooking, two hours each way."

In addition to planting trees and teaching about integrated agroforestry techniques, Renckens has also led sessions on improved cook stoves, which use less wood and prepare meals faster.

Renckens, 25, wrote that Togo is a varied and beautiful country that decades of poverty and political challenges have served to badly damage. She lives in the village of Agodopke, which has a population of about 400.

While she didn’t spend time abroad as a Rotary exchange student, Renckens’ path also took her abroad.

After graduating in 2004 from The Catholic University of American in Washington D.C., she spent time in Panama working with rural farmers on their land.

After which she spent time in the D.C. area working as a travel and events coordinator of a non-governmental organization doing HIV/AIDS research and development.

"I had a jacuzzi and great friends there," she wrote. "I gave up a lot when I came to Togo, but I have no regrets whatsoever."

Renckens left for Togo in June 2006 and is expected to return in September 2008.

All three of the girls wrote about what they missed most in Cooperstown.

Lettis wrote that she missed being on Otsego Lake with her friends the most, but also missed the little things like picking up a slice of pizza at Sal’s or getting a cup of hot chocolate at the Doubleday Cafe.

"I just miss the feeling of being in town and knowing where everything is, not having people stare at me because I look so different and foreign," she wrote.

Responding to Waldman’s email in the fall, Renckens wrote that she would love to see the leaves around the lake right now.

"The image of Autumn with the hillside seemingly on fire and reflected on Glimmerglass _ I miss that," she wrote.

Donnelly reflected more the similarities between Cooperstown and her town in Nicaragua that struck her.

"Despite being more removed from Cooperstown than I ever have been, I find myself thinking about it more than before," she wrote. People there laugh and gossip, teenagers are still shy and children beg their parents for candy money.

While the three girls were friends growing up in the general sense, Robin Lettis said they weren’t so close that the decision to join the Peace Corps was the kind of thing they planned ahead.

"The decisions were made independently of each other," she said.

When asked by Waldman why the class of 2000 produced so many volunteers, each girl pointed to their experiences growing up in the Cooperstown community.

"I think that growing up in a small town like Cooperstown created such a strong and positive sense of community for me that the idea of going to work in a small village for the betterment of the community was a very easy and logical decision to make," wrote Renckens.

Robin Lettis had a slightly different take on why her daughter and the two girls volunteered.

"I figure it’s because they have wonderful mothers who brought them up to be fantastic, independent women," she said with a laugh.