Nominee Toolkit

My Toolkit changed today reflecting my stage in the application process. I can now access the follow areas:

• Application Status
• Nominee Timeline
• Checklist
• Medical Clearance
• Learning Activities
• Resources
• Family and Friends

The Nomination

My recruiter received my third recommendation today and called to nominate me. He gave me four options:

• Africa: Computer Advising. Needs someone with web programming experience.
• Africa: Computer Advising. Focusing mostly on IT work.
• French Speaking Africa: Secondary Education and professional training. Teaching computer skills like database management, IT, programming, etc.
• Pacific Islands: Computer Advising. Needs someone with IT and database experience.

Please scroll down to a previous post where I listed my geographic preferences! Ultimately, I don't care where I go as long as I'm being placed somewhere I can be made useful. So, I picked the first nomination, the computer advising with web experience. I've been working as a web developer (part and full time) for the past two years so I felt as though this assignment matched me the best. This particular nomination is for September. Now all I have to do is wait for my medical/dental forms to come in the mail so I can be medically cleared. After that, I should get my formal invite.

Packet

I feel like I have to update this blog with every little bit of information. My recruiter e-mailed me saying he got the forms and fingerprint charts I filled out last week. All he's waiting for now is a transcript that's already in the mail and one more reference!

My Toolkit

Just after the interview the other day, I got my login for the "My Toolkit" area on the Peace Corps website. This is an area for applicants to track the status of their application, nominations, when things are mailed and received, etc. When I find that things have changed in My Toolkit, I will post them here. Currently, it says:

• Peace Corps received your Volunteer Application form on March 16, 2006.
• Peace Corps received your Health Status Review form on March 16, 2006.
• Your interview with Peace Corps has been completed.

Now I just waiting for my recruiter to get a couple things in the mail and I will be ready for a nomination.

The Interview

Two hours ago I had my phone Interview with my recruiter. It was a little more structured than I had originally thought but that wasn't bad. With structured interviews, it's easy to see what's coming. All of the questions were pretty generic, trying to figure out my leadership capabilities, how I feel about wearing different clothes, eating different food, etc. He asked a question about how I plan on dealing with stress while serving in country. I didn't really know how to answer so I said something along the lines of taking a break and reevaluating whatever situation was giving me a hard time. Then he elaborated on the question asking how I would deal with stress when I'm not able to communicate verbally with anyone, attempting to assimilate into a new culture and coping with loneliness and isolation. How am I supposed to answer that? Anyway, everything went well and after the interview we talked about his experience in Morocco and his upcoming visit to Bellarmine. We also talked about how cool Bardstown Rd was and how he salivates when he thinks about Mark's Feed Store. Now all I need to do is mail him my unofficial transcript and wait for my final reference to get mailed in before I get my nomination.

Quick

Today I received a packet in the mail from the Peace Corps office in Chicago. Inside was my recruiter assignment, a few forms and some information about being a Computer Science Volunteer. The forms covered information about background checks, fingerprinting and a questionnaire regarding my computer skills and experience. I didn't think I was going to be able to fill everything out this afternoon but I got started anyway. Well, I finished everything, dropped it in the mail and called my recruiter. We set up an interview for tomorrow at 4:00. It just so happens that my recruiter is going to be coming to Bellarmine on April 4th for a recruiting event! He said not many recruiters get to meet their recruitees face-to-face.

I'm suprised with how fast things seem to be going. The e-mail I got after submitting my application said I would have to wait as long as four weeks before I set up an interview. However, here I am with an interview appointment only seven days later! Everyone keeps telling me that this is a really long, drawn out process. I hope it keeps up at a somewhat regular pace so I don't get too antsy.

Here we go!

Congratulations! You have successfully submitted your Peace Corps Volunteer application and Health Status Review.

Thank you for taking the first step toward becoming a Peace Corps Volunteer. A Peace Corps recruiter will contact you within the next three to four weeks. During this time, you will also receive a letter in the mail with information about accessing My Toolkit, the Peace Corps' online application status check system. Your My Toolkit account will allow you to check the status of your application and respond quickly to requests for any additional information.

Thanks again, and good luck!

Language Skills

The Peace Corps doesn't require anyone to have any prior knowledge of a foreign language. For language skills on the application, I informed them of the following:

• I took two years of high school French.
• I speak a teeny hint of Bulgarian.

Geographic Preferences

On the application, I get to pick which regions in which I would be interested in serving. Below are the regions I picked, in no particular order:

• Asia
• North Africa / Middle East
• Eastern Europe / Central Asia
• Latin America

The regions I did not select as an interest to me were:

• Africa
• Pacific Islands
• Caribbean

Job Preferences

Listed in order are the three areas that I picked as my prefered jobs as a PCV:

1. Information Technology
2. Education
3. Business