Very quickly after I finished my application I got the fingerprint form in the mail, along with some other stuff. The fingerprinting was uneventful. I went to a police station. The guy was very nice and when he read that I was getting fingerprinted for the peace corps he waived the fee! In that packet was also some information about programs I could be qualified for. There was also a form asking for more information about my teaching experience, particularly in the field of English. Unfortunately the only “experience” I have is that I used to tutor a kid in high school..
I sent that all in and was in touch with my recruiter for a few weeks about what she needed from me and the people who wrote recommendations for me. Finally right before Thanksgiving my recruiter invited me to come in for an interview in the New York City office the following week. I accepted, set up a time, and started preparing!
The truth of the matter is.. I don’t interview well. I never have. My interviews for colleges were comical to say the least. Some of my answers were just like… where the heck did that come from?? I also had an interview earlier that month for student teaching and THAT was a DISASTER! I was just rambling on and on and not saying ANYTHING. My interviewer just looked at me, and at the end of it all actually made me write down answers to the questions that I just couldn’t answer cohesively out loud. So, I was EXTREMELY nervous about my Peace Corps interview. I actually spent hours preparing. I looked online for sample questions (which were pretty much dead on with what they asked). Then I wrote down a response to each question. I ended up with a packet 7 pages long single spaced! This is NOT something I would recommend doing, unless you are like me and you have issues with interviews.
So finally came the day of my interview, which was the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. I scheduled it for 10AM hoping to make it back to Long Island by 12:30 or soon thereafter so I wouldn’t have to completely miss my 12:30 class. In case you’re wondering what to wear, I wore simple dress pants, a sweater, and flats for city walking. I took the LIRR train into the city, got on a subway, and walked to the office building. I’ve navigated through the city before, but never by myself, so I gotta admit I was a little nervous. I made it with no issues though, took a deep breath, and walked in the building. I had to go through security first. One of the security officers asked me what I was there for. I told him my Peace Corps interview and he said “the Peace Corps? Wow, you must be VERY brave. I would never ever do a thing like that, not in this day and age.” He was trying to be nice and flatter me… but that was actually the first time that I ever though “oh my god.. what am I doing??” I am not brave and have never considered myself to be a brave person. And here this big strong security guy is telling me that he would never do what I was doing.
I was actually almost an hour early, so I went up to the top floor of the building to a little café. I sat there sipping water and drawing silly pictures of me and ukuleles. Then I made my way back down to the 10th floor for my interview. I made a fool of myself again. The elevator opened up on the 11th floor to let two police officers in. I thought it was the 10th floor so I got out, ignoring the huge sign right across from me that said something about immigration court haha. The cops saw me looking confused and said “uhhh… are you looking for immigration court?”
“No.. the Peace Corps?”
“That’s down one more floor..”
“oh.. hehehe”
Finally I made it to the right place, waited a bit for the interview, and was called in after a few minutes.
The interview was not as scary as I had originally thought, largely because my recruiter, Kim, was totally on my side. She genuinely wanted to help me look good and to find a place for me in a peace corps. It was a little weird because she needed to type my answers. So I had to speak slowly and concisely. Even though I had written out and studied answers I still struggled sounding intelligent in the interview. Kim was super nice though and tried really hard to get me to say the right thing. This was my favorite exchange:
Kim: In the Peace Corps you might have a lot of down time and might have to deal with loneliness and isolation. How will you handle this?
Diana: I am planning on bringing my ukulele and I can play when I have downtime.
Kim: What if your ukulele breaks?
Diana: umm I could read a book?
Kim: What if there are no books?
Diana: ummm I like to run. I can go running?
Kim: What if you don’t have sneakers?
Diana: ….um….um….
Kim: You mean you would make friends and relations in the community and get involved?
Diana: OH yeah! Of course I would do that!
Haha. If nothing else, this interview pointed out how often I use the word “um”. Every time I said the word, I heard one of my Professors in the back of my mind chanting “She’s buying time…” (he does that all the time in class). Toward the end of the interview the tables sort of turned and I was asking her questions about the Peace Corps and about her experience serving as a Peace Corps. She was extremely helpful. Then despite my awkwardness, she said she was going to find a place to nominate me and I should hear back from her by Friday.
The commute back to Long Island was a lot less scary and I’m sure there was a much bigger bounce in my step.
I did not make it back to class in time. Bummer.
Friday came. And went. Nothing.
Monday. Nothing.
Tuesday AHHHH! Nothing.
WEDNESDAY! I got an email from Kim with a nomination! It was for a Girls Empowerment project in Sub Saharan Africa and it sounded PERFECT! But I had to hurry up and respond because there was only one spot left. I responded within the hour she sent it, and spent the next two days telling EVERYONE who would listen!
Then Thursday evening I got another email from Kim saying I missed it. The project was closed and she would try to find another one. I was CRUSHED. That project and location was exactly what I had been picturing for months.
The next day I got another nomination, this time for Secondary English Teaching in Asia to leave the end of July. I wish I could say I was just as excited for this one, but I wasn’t. I never envisioned myself going to Asia. I pictured myself anywhere BUT Asia. I don’t really know why, but I just didn’t really have an interest in it. But I accepted, and kept a positive attitude. I managed to convince myself that maybe it’s for the best and that I could end up really enjoying it and really helping some people in Asia.
There was one stipulation. I was not really qualified for this project. I have TONS of teaching experience… but it’s all music teaching. I had to promise to get 30+ hours of English teaching experience. That’s a lot harder than it sounds, considering I will be student teaching next semester, AND participating in choral and orchestral ensembles AND teaching more than 20 private students AND working on my medical evaluation stuff.
But, I’m working it all out. And I’m almost caught up to present time in this blog. In my next post I’ll fill you in on my medical forms and my plans for getting English teaching experience.
Hi! I just came across your blog on PCJ and it caught my attention quickly because of when you applied. I find it funny because I started my application at about the same time, but I ended up putting it on hold on my own free will in June after working on it for about three weeks. I picked it up again maybe two or so weeks ago and am hoping to submit it in early January.
ReplyDeleteAs far as being nominated for Asia, I think Asia sounds really interesting. Even more exciting, at least in my mind, is that from the timeline Cambodia looks like the country you've been nominated for. This program seems to still be rather new, only about 5-6 years old. It seems to be largely education focused right now, but I imagine that there would be plenty of opportunity for awesome side projects in an area that interests you. It also ranked really high on the Peace Corps survey taken in 2008 in terms of satisfaction and plans to complete service, as well as how experiences matched up to expectations.
A lot of the Peace Corps blogs in Cambodia look super interesting, too! Hopefully you've been doing enough research on it to help get you a little more excited about the possibility of being in Asia for 2 years.
Wow, that sounds really tough. Good for you for being flexible and optimistic though! Never know what good will come your way :) Asia sounds fun!
ReplyDeleteI just came across your blog. I was nominated for Asia leaving in July as well. I was nominated for health not teaching though. Good luck to us while going though the process!
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