A. The professional attributes that you plan to use, and what aspirations you hope to fulfill, during your Peace Corps service
B. Your strategies for working effectively with host country partners to meet expressed needs
C. Your strategies for adapting to a new culture with respect to your own cultural background
D. The skills and knowledge you hope to gain during pre-service training to best serve your future community and project
E. How you think Peace Corps Service will influence your personal and professional aspirations after your service ends.
I'm not sure if I did it exactly how they wanted it, but I did attempt to answer each section to the best of my ability. Below are my written responses to each statement:
A. My service as a Peace Corps volunteer in South Africa will be a difficult, stressful, incredible experience. It will push me to my limits and will change the way I look at both my own life and the lives around me. It will be tough, and it won’t always be fun, but I will still make it a daily mission to find at least one good thing about my situation and surroundings each day. I will use my positive outlook to enhance my Peace Corps experience by always looking for the good even in a bad situation. My patience and flexibility will be tested, but I plan on meeting any challenges head-on and with the mindset that I will get through it. I know there will be things that I do not yet know, such as the language or local culture and mannerisms, but I will go into each situation with an open mind and a thirst to learn. I expect that leaving a modern culture with high-speed internet, information at my fingertips and entertainment at the push of a button will be a life-altering experience, but I will embrace my new-found technological isolation as a chance to slow down appreciate the world around me. I know time will go slow—painfully slow at times—but I will embrace this too as a welcome change of pace and learn to let things be. And I know that by the end of my Peace Corps experience, no matter how many highs or lows I hit, I know that I will be a better person and a better professional because of this experience.
B. Because of experiences allowed to me through both education and previous volunteer work, I have had the opportunity to work with a wide range of people. I have worked in areas where English wasn’t spoken, and had to overcome obstacles such as language and culture to accomplish what needed to be done. I have worked in inner city neighborhoods, where poverty and gangs run rampant. I have worked with children, adults, and the elderly. I plan on using what I’ve learned from all of these experiences to help me work with my host country partners. This includes patience when language creates a barrier and when cultural norms clash. It also includes being open to different ideas and ways of doing things, and being able to work together to accomplish a common goal. It means I must be approachable and personable, no matter how tired or stressed I may be. I will ask questions at any opportunity to understand the situation and the mindsets of my host country partners. I will keep an open mind and an open heart, and I will always understand that while I am a teacher, I am also simultaneously a student.
C. I have been exposed to a wide variety of cultures and ways of living, and I’ve learned that the best way to experience a different culture is to be fully immersed in it. Before I leave, I plan on learning everything I can about South Africa: it’s history as a nation, it’s languages, it’s cultures and traditions. Once I arrive, I plan on observing people as much as possible. You learn a lot from observing people, including what is culturally acceptable, how people interact with one another, and how people function as a whole in society. When you spend your whole life in one cultural atmosphere, you are unaware of how many things that you consider normal or typical are only considered so in your culture. I plan on noting the differences between the culture that I’ve grown up in and the culture I will be experiencing for two years. I will adapt my own behavior to match that of the culture that I am in so that I can be an active member of society. In addition to observation, asking questions are always helpful to understanding any culture, and I plan on asking as many questions as people will allow.
D. There are many skills that I hope to gain during pre-service training, and there is much that I need to learn in order to work best with my future community. While I don’t know which of the 11 official languages of South Africa I will need to speak, I hope to learn the language as best I can during this time and have a working proficiency in the language so that I may be functional in the community as soon as training has concluded. Teamwork will play a huge role in getting things done in South Africa, and I hope to enhance my teamwork skills during pre-service training. I need to learn about the role education plays in the community I will be working in to understand any and all challenges I must face. Understanding the difficulties that I will face once I arrive on site before actually arriving will help me to better adapt to the situation and have in place some formative goals and methods to accomplish these goals. I hope to begin to enhance my patience and perseverance at this point so that when progress seems to grow stagnant, I may still be hopeful and energized in order to see my projects through to the end.
E. I believe that my Peace Corps service will enhance my understanding and knowledge of the way other societies and cultures function in different parts of the globe. I also expect that my experience will enhance certain personal skills, including patience, perseverance, and flexibility; these attributes are not only important to me as a person but as a working professional. I believe that my Peace Corps service will also give me a broader view of the world and how the world functions outside of the fast-paced American culture. It will help me to understand how globalization has affected South Africa and the communities contained therein. My Peace Corps service will give me a greater sense of self and who I am as an individual. It will teach me that in solitude there is not only loneliness but peace, and I will learn how to take time for myself even when constantly surrounded by people. As a teacher, I will learn adaptive methods to reach a population of people completely different from myself and with a different view on the importance of education that the one I hold. I will learn to stress less when put into seemingly impossible situations, and I will learn that not everything I hope to accomplish will actually be realized. I will learn to embrace my failures and to celebrate in my accomplishments. I will learn to adapt my teaching methods to best reach all students, whether my students be children, adults, or colleagues. I hope to be a better person because of my Peace Corps experience, and I look forward to seeing how my Peace Corps service contributes to my personal growth and development.
