Placement Manipulation

Hello Everybody!

So I am in the process of getting my second round medical stuff into the office, and am hoping to have everything done by the end of this next week (assuming my blood tests come back quickly.) On another note I wanted to post about some "placement manipulation" I am attempting.

Before I get into this, let me make it clear that I am serious about my flexibility and I will be thrilled to serve where ever peace corps wants to send me, that being said; I have an Asian Studies specialization and it would be cool to end up somewhere in Asia. Imagine my elation when this morning I go to poke around peacecorpswiki.com and find a few new postings for deployments in January! There are only two of them but one of them is in Thailand, which would be an amazing placement for me seeing as my Grandfather (a tenured Sociology professor who specializes in East Asia) spends a lot of time there, and my mother spent three months there and couldn't stop raving about it.

Clearly neither of these trips probably went deep into the areas in which I would be working as a Peace Corps volunteer but I would still be interested in traveling to a country that everyone in my family seems to love so much. There is also the little fact that I am currently writing the last paper of my degree as a comparative study between Uganda and Thailand's approaches to prevent the spread of HIV. I'm hoping that I can put this paper on some sort of experience addendum since I'm certainly getting an insane amount of knowledge about Thailand's HIV population.

Anyways, I guess its not really "manipulation" because (as I am sure you all know), they are going to give out whatever placement they want, and you don't get much say, but I feel better thinking I have some amount of control over where I am going for the next two years, so at least there is that.

Hope all is well,
Claire  

Official Placement Move Back Email

Hello All,

Had a bit of a delay in the information gathering seeing as the hotel I was staying in didn't have internet access, and the train refused to let me get on to my email account. That being said I am sure many of you have already received the below email from the placement office, but in the case you haven't, this was waiting for me when I logged on this morning:

Greetings from the Peace Corps Placement Office,

The Placement Office is the office responsible for the final evaluation of applicants for suitability and competitiveness and the final selection of applicants for specific programs.   Evaluation and selection are typically done after applicants have received medical and legal clearances.  At this time, we understand you are still in the medical process, however, we are contacting you to provide you with information regarding your current status.

Recent events, specifically the federal budget resolution for this fiscal year as well as projected budget realities for next year, have had a significant impact on current Peace Corps’ operating plans. A result has been significant reductions in the number of Peace Corps Volunteer assignments to be filled for the remainder of 2011.  As a result of these adjustments, if/when you successfully complete the Peace Corps medical qualification evaluation and final application review, there is a strong likelihood you would not be placed in a program until January-March of 2012. 

Recognizing the challenge this may pose to you, we want to ask what you would like to do at this stage of the process.  The first option is to evaluate your application with a target placement date of January – March 2012.   If you choose this option, we would conduct an initial screening of your application for suitability and competitiveness and let you know the next steps within two months of the date of this letter.  Please keep in mind, any potential invitation would not happen for several months and is pending successful completion of the medical process and a suitability review.  If you choose this option, please continue to seek further opportunities to make your application more competitive.  Also note, if you are selected for service, a Placement Officer will work to match you with an opening, taking into account your skills, availability, necessary medical support needs, and the needs of our host countries.  If this option does not work for you, we can withdraw your application from consideration. 

We understand that you may need some time to consider these options but ask that you respond to this email by July 15^th, indicating your interest in remaining active for consideration or indicating your desire to withdraw.   If we do not hear from you by this date, your application will be withdrawn. 

We appreciate your dedication to service with the Peace Corps and thank you for applying to volunteer.

I don't know about the rest of you but I didn't get this far just to be deterred by a few extra months of waiting. If this experience is really as life changing as people say it is, then it is going to be worth it. I emailed them back and let them know I was willing to wait. On that same note though, I don't know how long the period of patience will extend. I have decided that if Peace Corps asks me to wait more than a year from this point in time, I will be deferring my application in order to go into Masters International program. 

For those of you that may not know, Peace Corps has a program where an applicant may apply to Peace Corps and certain masters programs separately. If you get into both, you may defer your application, go to school for two years and then the rest of your degree is completed during your service. 

I really hope those of you reading this stick with it. I know I am in a relatively easy position to be able to push things back since I am fresh out of college, don't have a career, family, or house to take care of and have relatively few "life obligations" to move around in order to accommodate a term of PC service, but what you really have to ask yourself is how much you want it? And if not now then when? Is life going to get any easier later on down the line? If it is, maybe you should consider reapplying later, but if its not, and you want this as much as I do, you will bite down, suck up, and do what you have to do to make sure you can go and have the greatest adventure of your life. :)

Much love, 

Claire   

Canada Adventure

My mother being the wonderful person that she is has decided that we needed to take one last family trip together before I leave for Peace Corps (and at this point who knows when that will be?) and my sister leaves for college in Wisconsin. That being said I am now writing from my Grandmother's cottage in Ontario Canada, after the 4th of July we will be driving to Toronto and then board a train to take us to Montreal.

I have been looking forward to this trip for a while now and I am glad that my mom took it upon herself to plan it. Fact is as I get older there will be less and less opportunity to travel together as a family and so I am trying to take advantage of it now, and not take it for granted.

That being said I will be putting the rest of the paperwork on hold for two weeks. I don't think there will be any amount of big hoopla about this, and I will try and get it all taken care of the week I get back (though there is a minor possibility that I will be traveling down south to audition for American Idol for kicks and giggles with a friend, but I just have the feeling that that is going to fall through.)

I guess the moral of this post is that just because you are waiting to hear from Peace Corps doesn't mean life stops and doesn't mean you have to wallow in the horrible limbo of it all. Life keeps on keeping on and not even a federal organization is going to change that. :)

Much Love from Canada,
Claire