My PO called my Saturday afternoon. I was surprised she was working then, but she said it was busy season at the placement office.
We talked for an hour about how prepared I am to serve and several other issues like coping with stress, Kristofer, communication with people back home, and timelines.
She said she'd call me back this week, so this definitely means my application is in motion.
July 11, 2007
June 17, 2007
Placement officer
I contacted the Placement Office yesterday (1-800-424-8580 opt. 1, opt. 2, opt. 1, ext. 1850) and they gave me a teensy bit more information.
I told them I felt very much in the dark about the status of my application, which is true. It's been 22 weeks since I was medically cleared and there have been no developments since then. I told them that my original nomination was to a place I can't go any longer and that I wanted to know what my new nomination was. That in the very least I'd like a vague timeline of future events so that I'm not sitting on my ass until October or something.
The woman who answered the phone was really nice. She told me she didn't have a lot of information about the things I wanted to know, like a list of countries I'm eligible to serve in, but she was able to tell me my PO's name.
Julie Thompson.
All PC employees in DC have the same email format: first name initial then last name @peacecorps.gov. So I sent an email to JThompson[at]peacecorps.gov hoping it was her. I haven't heard anything back. That was on Friday so maybe I'll hear from her next week.
I told them I felt very much in the dark about the status of my application, which is true. It's been 22 weeks since I was medically cleared and there have been no developments since then. I told them that my original nomination was to a place I can't go any longer and that I wanted to know what my new nomination was. That in the very least I'd like a vague timeline of future events so that I'm not sitting on my ass until October or something.
The woman who answered the phone was really nice. She told me she didn't have a lot of information about the things I wanted to know, like a list of countries I'm eligible to serve in, but she was able to tell me my PO's name.
Julie Thompson.
All PC employees in DC have the same email format: first name initial then last name @peacecorps.gov. So I sent an email to JThompson[at]peacecorps.gov hoping it was her. I haven't heard anything back. That was on Friday so maybe I'll hear from her next week.
June 6, 2007
Fingers crossed
The invites for people departing in July finish this week. The invites for August and September have already started.
May 8, 2007
Nomination information
I contacted someone in the Placement Office yesterday, asking about my nomination. When I got my nomination, it was supposed to tell me three things:
1) The job that I'll be doing there
2) Approximate date of departure (usually a month)
3) Area of service (general geographic area)
But mine only told me the job that I'll be doing -- secondary science education. So when I emailed the guy yesterday, I wanted to know if he knew anything more about my nomination,
specifically about the date of departure. I wanted to know because if the interim between graduation this month and then my departure turns out to be like 5 months, then I would want to know since that means I'd get a temporary job or find some daily volunteer service to get involved with.
Well, he did have the full information about my initial nomination. I was nominated by my recruiter Michelle (Zambia 04-06) to serve in Sub-Saharan Africa from September 2007-November 2009. But as we know this can no longer be a reality because of my condition. It's just nice to know now. I have no idea why they didn't tell me before.
1) The job that I'll be doing there
2) Approximate date of departure (usually a month)
3) Area of service (general geographic area)
But mine only told me the job that I'll be doing -- secondary science education. So when I emailed the guy yesterday, I wanted to know if he knew anything more about my nomination,
specifically about the date of departure. I wanted to know because if the interim between graduation this month and then my departure turns out to be like 5 months, then I would want to know since that means I'd get a temporary job or find some daily volunteer service to get involved with.
Well, he did have the full information about my initial nomination. I was nominated by my recruiter Michelle (Zambia 04-06) to serve in Sub-Saharan Africa from September 2007-November 2009. But as we know this can no longer be a reality because of my condition. It's just nice to know now. I have no idea why they didn't tell me before.
April 8, 2007
More waiting
I've probably already told everyone that reads this, but I was offered to leave in June 2007 if I wanted to. An email was sent to all nominees who had been 100% cleared (medical, dental, legal) asking if they wanted to take a teaching position that leaves in June. It feels like they were scrambling for PCVs. I guess it's what you can expect when most of your organization is run by previous volunteers. Needless to say, I didn't accept any of that. My earliest departure date is August 1st of this year.
I should also add that I've been checking the PC Yahoo! group regularly for people's "I was invited to Togo!" and "I'm leaving for Moldova in May!" messages, and from what I can tell, people have been receiving their invites ~2 months before departure, meaning I could expect mine sometime in June at the very earliest. But who knows, it could be earlier than that.
I should also add that I've been checking the PC Yahoo! group regularly for people's "I was invited to Togo!" and "I'm leaving for Moldova in May!" messages, and from what I can tell, people have been receiving their invites ~2 months before departure, meaning I could expect mine sometime in June at the very earliest. But who knows, it could be earlier than that.
March 29, 2007
Why I wanted to join the Peace Corps, Part I
This post had become really ponderous, so I decided that I would just make it a running series of posts where I tease out the many reasons why I decided to do something like join the Peace Corps.
I first heard of the Peace Corps my freshman year of college when I was at a hunger banquet being put on by H2O. There were some informational brochures and stuff on a table near the exit and Liane and I perused them. Our response to Peace Corps service initially was a resolute hell no. Fast forward to two years later and I am in the process of applying and so is she, along with her fiancé (they have currently dropped out of the application process for their own reasons).
What prompted this decision for me was a number of things. Not the least of these was the question "what am I gonna do after college?"
At the time, I wasn't as interested in linguistics as I am now, so post-graduate studies wasn't an option since I didn't want to go to law school or medical school or anything like that. I honestly didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, and to a degree I still don't. What I think sounds good at the moment is grad school for linguistics, but I'll sit on that idea for two years and then see if I still want to do it when I come back.
I reasoned that, if anything, Peace Corps buys you time during the transition from college to "real life". It seemed like a great way to obtain some valuable skills and also, you know, see the world. It didn't seem like a sacrifice to me, but more of a, "You mean the government is going to pay me to live and work overseas? And then pay me more at the end? And everyone who has done this says it was the most life-enriching thing they've ever done?"
These reasons ("Buys time", "Is fulfilling") are close to the front in terms of most important reasons. The obvious one, "Want to help the world", might be first. More on that later, though.
I first heard of the Peace Corps my freshman year of college when I was at a hunger banquet being put on by H2O. There were some informational brochures and stuff on a table near the exit and Liane and I perused them. Our response to Peace Corps service initially was a resolute hell no. Fast forward to two years later and I am in the process of applying and so is she, along with her fiancé (they have currently dropped out of the application process for their own reasons).
What prompted this decision for me was a number of things. Not the least of these was the question "what am I gonna do after college?"
At the time, I wasn't as interested in linguistics as I am now, so post-graduate studies wasn't an option since I didn't want to go to law school or medical school or anything like that. I honestly didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, and to a degree I still don't. What I think sounds good at the moment is grad school for linguistics, but I'll sit on that idea for two years and then see if I still want to do it when I come back.
I reasoned that, if anything, Peace Corps buys you time during the transition from college to "real life". It seemed like a great way to obtain some valuable skills and also, you know, see the world. It didn't seem like a sacrifice to me, but more of a, "You mean the government is going to pay me to live and work overseas? And then pay me more at the end? And everyone who has done this says it was the most life-enriching thing they've ever done?"
These reasons ("Buys time", "Is fulfilling") are close to the front in terms of most important reasons. The obvious one, "Want to help the world", might be first. More on that later, though.
First contact with PC since January 10th
Steven Jacobson from the Placement Office contacted me today:
Mr. Jacobson, as he told me in a reply email, is not my PO, but my real PO (a "she") will contact me in the next few weeks. I don't think this will be an invitation, but probably just a "Hey, I'm your placement officer congratulations on getting into the Peace Corps ... so I see you're from Texas... " and so on.
I want to get my invitation at least by early June, because I want to start planning my going-away party. It's going to be fun, for me at least, because hopefully everyone from my past will show up. FYI, it will be in Austin in the apartment of Andy, Jessica, and Kara/Lauren.
Dear Elliott,
I hope this email finds you well! I'm writing to you from the Peace Corps Placement Office in Washington, DC. We are busy reviewing and evaluating your Peace Corps application to be sure that everything looks good for you to be approved for service. I reviewed your file this morning and I identified one item that needed follow-up.
Then he went on to say how he needed my transcript once I graduated and that certain things needed to be on it. He also asked if my earliest departure date had changed. I responded that I could leave as early as August 1st, 2007. My plans for this summer are to spend a month (June) with my family and friends in Texas and then one month (July) with Kristofer, and then I'm off.
I'm anticipating not leaving on exactly August 1st, so my stay in San Jose will likely be more than one month.
Mr. Jacobson, as he told me in a reply email, is not my PO, but my real PO (a "she") will contact me in the next few weeks. I don't think this will be an invitation, but probably just a "Hey, I'm your placement officer congratulations on getting into the Peace Corps ... so I see you're from Texas... " and so on.
I want to get my invitation at least by early June, because I want to start planning my going-away party. It's going to be fun, for me at least, because hopefully everyone from my past will show up. FYI, it will be in Austin in the apartment of Andy, Jessica, and Kara/Lauren.
March 5, 2007
February 23, 2007
Interview with Michelle
I had my interview with the recruiter on September 11, 2006 at 10:30am. Her name was Michelle Lalonde and we had corresponded briefly by email beforehand. Apparently, the previous PC recruiter for the UT/Austin area had left, and Michelle was just getting settled in. She had only recently returned from Zambia and I was to be her first interviewee.
I got into the room where she was interviewing and she was wearing this heavy-looking shawl. Her explanation for the shawl was that she was used to such high heats in Zambia that being in central Texas' summer felt positively chilly.
She started off the interview with a funny story about how she thought I was another Elliott H, one who had served in Zambia with her. She said that when I first emailed her she thought it was the other Elliott and that he was emailing her to apologize for not showing up to her going away party. Small world huh.
The interview itself was what I expected: around two hours long with lots of personal questions about how I feel about living alone/being far away/being depressed/adapting to various situations. I think I prepared well, since there were good guides online about how the interviews go. I remember I had a problem with questions like, "Tell about a time where you were able to transfer knowledge to someone different from yourself" and "What have you learned about yourself working in an unstructured environment."
Concerning the two essays I wrote, Michelle was concerned that I used the word "hobo" to refer to an indigent person. I didn't give any thought to the fact that they might not want to be called "hobos". Oops. I told her that I didn't really think about it and that there was no malicious intent int he usage. She was worried that, when I returned from my service, I would talk about the HCNs disparagingly.
Oh, and before the whole interview I had a glass of wine so that I would be able to talk without getting the jitters and feel looser. I also wore glasses because I thought that would make me look like I was taking it seriously. Not sure if it worked, but apparently I did something right since I was accepted.
I got into the room where she was interviewing and she was wearing this heavy-looking shawl. Her explanation for the shawl was that she was used to such high heats in Zambia that being in central Texas' summer felt positively chilly.
She started off the interview with a funny story about how she thought I was another Elliott H, one who had served in Zambia with her. She said that when I first emailed her she thought it was the other Elliott and that he was emailing her to apologize for not showing up to her going away party. Small world huh.
The interview itself was what I expected: around two hours long with lots of personal questions about how I feel about living alone/being far away/being depressed/adapting to various situations. I think I prepared well, since there were good guides online about how the interviews go. I remember I had a problem with questions like, "Tell about a time where you were able to transfer knowledge to someone different from yourself" and "What have you learned about yourself working in an unstructured environment."
Concerning the two essays I wrote, Michelle was concerned that I used the word "hobo" to refer to an indigent person. I didn't give any thought to the fact that they might not want to be called "hobos". Oops. I told her that I didn't really think about it and that there was no malicious intent int he usage. She was worried that, when I returned from my service, I would talk about the HCNs disparagingly.
Oh, and before the whole interview I had a glass of wine so that I would be able to talk without getting the jitters and feel looser. I also wore glasses because I thought that would make me look like I was taking it seriously. Not sure if it worked, but apparently I did something right since I was accepted.
February 10, 2007
A riposte I hope to use one day
What I tell people about PC is that as long as you're healthy, sane, and have a college degree, you can get accepted. The application process is pretty difficult in terms of amount of time required and number of things you have to do, but it's not like some great task requiring demonstrations of strength and cunning. That said, there are genuinely good reasons for people to be denied: They are clearly intolerant of other cultures, they are running away from the law, they have severe mental issues, they worked for the CIA, and so on. But most applicants who end up not making it to staging drop out of the application process by their own volition, not because they were denied by the recruiter or medical office. People have their own reasons -- you're getting married, you have dependents, you have a great job offer, whatever. Someone even said that they couldn't go because they had an old cat.
I hear from RCPVs that when people find out they were in the Peace Corps, a response they get quite often is "Oh, really! I was going to join the Peace Corps!" or "I wanted to do that!" I've heard that when they get these kinds of responses, how hard it is to resist replying, "But you didn't, did you?"
I hear from RCPVs that when people find out they were in the Peace Corps, a response they get quite often is "Oh, really! I was going to join the Peace Corps!" or "I wanted to do that!" I've heard that when they get these kinds of responses, how hard it is to resist replying, "But you didn't, did you?"
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