Peace Corps Program Decision

I chose in the order listed below and emailed my recruiter.

Option 2
Program: Business Advising
Region: North Africa / Middle East
Description: Small business development. Strong applicants will have previous experience with small business ownership.
Date of Departure: July, 2006

Option 1
Program: English Teacher
Region: Central Asia / AsiaDescription: Full time teaching in secondary schools and professional institutions. Volunteers may team teach and conduct community needs assessments. Most applicants will be in rural villages. Applicants should be flexible.
Date of Departure: early June 2006

Peace Corps Program Options

My Peace Corps recruiter emailed me two options to choose from for my nomination. I have to get back to him by 12/1/2005 with my order of preference. Here are the options:

Option 1
Program: English Teacher
Region: Central Asia / Asia
Description: Full time teaching in\nsecondary schools and professional institutions. Volunteers may team teach and conduct community needs assessments. Most applicants will be in rural villages. Applicants should be flexible.
Date of Departure: early June 2006

Option 2
Program: Business Advising
Region: North Africa / Middle East
Description: Small business development. Strong applicants will have previous experience with small business ownership.
Date of Departure: July, 2006

Peace Corps Interview

I had my interview today and I can honestly say that it went fairly well. I prepared myself by going over the Peace Corps website, reading entries and going over the files in the peacecorps2 Yahoo! group, and by actually reading the WHOLE "Peace Corps Congressional Budget Justification" for 2006 (227 pages). I do NOT recommend reading the "Peace Corps Congressional Budget Justification," it is pointless, but I do recommend going over the Peace Corps website, contacting your recruiter if you have any questions, going onto Yahoo! groups to ask any other questions you may have and go over the interview questions listed under 'files' in the Yahoo! group. You can find a copy of the interview questions listed below.

1. Why the Peace Corps?
2.Why the areas of volunteer work you chose?
3. Do you have any experience in those fields?
4. What do you do for fun?
5. Give an example of a leadership position you had
6. How do you deal with confrontation?
7. Have you ever had to take leadership in an unstructured setting?
8. How do you feel about any of the following:
-Living somewhere with no running water or no hot water?
-Living somewhere isolated?
-Being away from home and family?
-Trying new foods?
-Being in a country that has alcohol as a key drink?
-Being in a country with no alcohol?
9. How long have you been away from home before?
10. How do you feel about being in a country with strict gender roles? How do you think you could deal with that?
11. Have you ever had French/Spanish? How would you feel about learning it now?
12. Describe a situation where you had to exhibit or use leadership skills.
13. Discuss a situation where you had to make a difficult decision and how people dealt with it/ you dealt with it.
14. In your leadership position(s), how did you train or lead people?
15. What's rewarding about your volunteer work and what have you learned from it?
16. Do you have a religious preference of the country you go to?
17. Tell about an experience when you were able to transfer some knowledge or
skill to someone who was different from yourself. What did you learn about
your interpersonal skills from that experience? What did you learn about the
other person?
18.Tell about a time when you worked in an unstructured or ambiguous situation?
How did you approach the task at hand? What did you learn about your
personal strengths from that experience?

Scheduled The Interview

My Peace Corps recruiter sent me an email requesting that I call him to set up an interview. I called him back on the same day and my interview is set for Monday, 11/28/2005, 10am at the Peace Corps New York Regional Office located at 201 Varick Street, Suite 1025, New York, NY 10014.

Contacted By Peace Corps Recruiter

My Peace Corps recruiter contacted me through email requesting that I send in my transcripts and recommendations. Once he receives all this, he will then call me to schedule an interview.