i submitted my peace corps application today!!! my poor patient mother spent much of her first time ever in houston engaging in peace corps discussions. when she first got here i told her about my decision to apply, and she has been very supportive (of the "if it makes you happy it makes me happy" type of supportive). she helped me through the MOUNDS of paperwork involved in the application processes, she let me continuously name countries where i might get sent, edited my essays, helped me with my health status review, etc. she really was most patient.
the application itself was a little overwhelming: pages of the basic information, then details about every job i've ever had, all the volunteer work i've ever done, schoolwork, etc. then there was the CV, the recommendations, the essays. many hours spent making sure i presented myself both accurately and in the best light possible :)
i've been working on not obsessing about things, so this was a really good opportunity to spend enough but not too much time on both the application and my essays. i've actually posted them here if anybody is interested in reading them. small disclaimer though: they are cheesy. my natural sense of cheese comes out when i'm writing essays, personal statements, etc. i don't know what it is. so keep in mind that i know they are cheesy, but they do say what i wanted to say. click on Read More to take a look or completely pass over them...up to you!
i've been working on not obsessing about things, so this was a really good opportunity to spend enough but not too much time on both the application and my essays. i've actually posted them here if anybody is interested in reading them. small disclaimer though: they are cheesy. my natural sense of cheese comes out when i'm writing essays, personal statements, etc. i don't know what it is. so keep in mind that i know they are cheesy, but they do say what i wanted to say. click on Read More to take a look or completely pass over them...up to you!
Peace Corps service presents major physical, emotional, and intellectual challenges. Please provide a statement that includes:
• Your reasons for wanting to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer; and
• How these reasons are related to your past experiences and life goals.
• How you expect to satisfy the Peace Corps 10 Core Expectations (please be specific about which expectations you expect to find most challenging and how you plan to overcome these challenges).
I have a goal: to be bigger than myself. I want to have a large heart, a broad understanding, and a wide influence. I have not had to leave the country to make progress towards these goals; I’ve gained much through experiences I’ve had here in the United States. Volunteer work with hospice, American Red Cross, and Student Epidemic Intelligence Service has provided me with opportunities to serve and improve myself. Through this service I have developed skills such as first aid and disaster/outbreak response, and qualities such as compassion and persistence. My mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was eighteen months of service and personal development in which I learned to approach strangers, customize and teach lessons for adults and children, and be flexible as to where and with whom I was assigned to work. Through my education and employment I have worked to gain a skill set that will enable me to help others and create positive change. I have been able to take initiative and work both independently and as part of a team. I can conduct epidemiological studies, create and evaluate intervention programs, conduct rapid assessments, respond to outbreaks and other disasters, and train others in these important skills.
The Peace Corps will be another step in progressing towards my goals. Volunteering and immersing myself into a different culture will mean new growth and greater diversity of experience and service opportunity. The enumerated expectations match both the reasons I have to volunteer and the goals that I have to improve myself. My educational and career choices in Public Health are focused on improving the quality of life of others, and I will do this as a Peace Corps volunteer through sharing the skills I have been blessed to gain through my education. I expect to be both a teacher and a learner, thus encouraging the mutual learning and respect necessary for effective service. Through interactions with the Deaf, Asian immigrant, British prison, and African-American injection drug usin
g populations I have gained an appreciation of trust and cultural sensitivity, and practiced cultivating a spirit of cooperation among people very different from me.
I have decided that this is an appropriate time for me to serve abroad for 27 months, as I will have completed my MPH program and seek to practice the things I have learned before entering an Epidemiology PhD program. While being away from family and familiarity is difficult, I will overcome this challenge as I did while serving an eighteen month mission: by focusing less on myself and more on those I am there to serve. Another challenge I expect to face is the burden of representing both the United States and my host country - I have a great respect for both my country and the work the Peace Corps does and I find this responsibility daunting. I know I will become a good representative through concerted efforts in communication, gaining cultural competence, cultivating personal relationships, and making memorable experiences that can be shared both with those in my host community and back home.
I wish to become a member of a global community. Sharing skills among members of this community is essential, as we all have much to give and much to learn. Likewise, respect, understanding, and trust need to be shared among us. I believe this experience will enable me to share my skills and learn new ones, to earn and learn respect, and to become another step closer to my life’s goals.
Your success as a Peace Corps Volunteer is based on the trust and confidence you build by living in, and respectfully integrating yourself into, your host community and culture. Describe an experience you have had in living or working in a social or cultural environment different from your own. What specific challenges did you face concerning trust, confidence, and/or integration? What did you learn from this experience that you will bring with you to your Peace Corps service?
I have often felt the panic of being thrown into the deep end of a very different cultural environment from my own. I was asked while serving a mission for my church to work among the Deaf, with limited knowledge of their culture or language. I have interviewed young male British prisoners, and am currently interviewing mainly middle aged African American injection drug users. I have spent much of my life explaining my relatively uncommon religious beliefs and trying to understand and respect the beliefs of others. Most recently, I have been participating in the Houston Department of Health and Human Services Hepatitis B in the Asian Community screening program. I am one of two non-Asian members of the organizational committee, and have once again found myself working in a culture very different from my own.
At the first screening for this program, I worked as a phlebotomist taking blood samples from recent Vietnamese immigrants. At one point, an elderly woman was assigned to my station and started speaking in Vietnamese. I tried so hard to communicate with her, but eventually her daughter came over to translate, and the message was that she wanted her blood drawn by a Vietnamese phlebotomist. It is human nature to trust those most like us - and she and I were very different. Rationally, I understood this. Emotionally, I desperately wanted to be accepted and trusted by this group of people I had been working so hard to serve. I pondered this as I prepared for the next screening event, also in the Vietnamese community. I found articles, websites, and an online course in cultural competence and bridging cultural differences regarding hepatitis B and the Asian community. I spoke to my advisor, who is from Taiwan, about differences in health beliefs among different Asian populations, and how I could best overcome these challenges of integration. During the next screening, I sat next to a very helpful Vietnamese nurse who taught me Vietnamese phrases in between patients, so that I could say “my name is Jordan,” and “thank you”. Though many people smiled at my horrible pronunciation, it showed them that I cared about them enough to try to communicate, and I felt the other volunteers showed more confidence in me as a part of the team as I tried to be culturally informed and sensitive.
Through these experiences I have learned that trust, understanding, and integration come through hard work, being willing to put yourself out there (and possibly butchering a new language), and caring about the people you serve. This knowledge will help me in my efforts to integrate into the community and culture I am assigned to work in as a Peace Corps volunteer. Perhaps more important than this knowledge is the desire I have gained - the world is full of people different than me, and each difference is something I can learn from, and something that will help me grow as a person and provide better service to others.
• Your reasons for wanting to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer; and
• How these reasons are related to your past experiences and life goals.
• How you expect to satisfy the Peace Corps 10 Core Expectations (please be specific about which expectations you expect to find most challenging and how you plan to overcome these challenges).
I have a goal: to be bigger than myself. I want to have a large heart, a broad understanding, and a wide influence. I have not had to leave the country to make progress towards these goals; I’ve gained much through experiences I’ve had here in the United States. Volunteer work with hospice, American Red Cross, and Student Epidemic Intelligence Service has provided me with opportunities to serve and improve myself. Through this service I have developed skills such as first aid and disaster/outbreak response, and qualities such as compassion and persistence. My mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was eighteen months of service and personal development in which I learned to approach strangers, customize and teach lessons for adults and children, and be flexible as to where and with whom I was assigned to work. Through my education and employment I have worked to gain a skill set that will enable me to help others and create positive change. I have been able to take initiative and work both independently and as part of a team. I can conduct epidemiological studies, create and evaluate intervention programs, conduct rapid assessments, respond to outbreaks and other disasters, and train others in these important skills.
The Peace Corps will be another step in progressing towards my goals. Volunteering and immersing myself into a different culture will mean new growth and greater diversity of experience and service opportunity. The enumerated expectations match both the reasons I have to volunteer and the goals that I have to improve myself. My educational and career choices in Public Health are focused on improving the quality of life of others, and I will do this as a Peace Corps volunteer through sharing the skills I have been blessed to gain through my education. I expect to be both a teacher and a learner, thus encouraging the mutual learning and respect necessary for effective service. Through interactions with the Deaf, Asian immigrant, British prison, and African-American injection drug usin
g populations I have gained an appreciation of trust and cultural sensitivity, and practiced cultivating a spirit of cooperation among people very different from me.
I have decided that this is an appropriate time for me to serve abroad for 27 months, as I will have completed my MPH program and seek to practice the things I have learned before entering an Epidemiology PhD program. While being away from family and familiarity is difficult, I will overcome this challenge as I did while serving an eighteen month mission: by focusing less on myself and more on those I am there to serve. Another challenge I expect to face is the burden of representing both the United States and my host country - I have a great respect for both my country and the work the Peace Corps does and I find this responsibility daunting. I know I will become a good representative through concerted efforts in communication, gaining cultural competence, cultivating personal relationships, and making memorable experiences that can be shared both with those in my host community and back home.
I wish to become a member of a global community. Sharing skills among members of this community is essential, as we all have much to give and much to learn. Likewise, respect, understanding, and trust need to be shared among us. I believe this experience will enable me to share my skills and learn new ones, to earn and learn respect, and to become another step closer to my life’s goals.
Your success as a Peace Corps Volunteer is based on the trust and confidence you build by living in, and respectfully integrating yourself into, your host community and culture. Describe an experience you have had in living or working in a social or cultural environment different from your own. What specific challenges did you face concerning trust, confidence, and/or integration? What did you learn from this experience that you will bring with you to your Peace Corps service?
I have often felt the panic of being thrown into the deep end of a very different cultural environment from my own. I was asked while serving a mission for my church to work among the Deaf, with limited knowledge of their culture or language. I have interviewed young male British prisoners, and am currently interviewing mainly middle aged African American injection drug users. I have spent much of my life explaining my relatively uncommon religious beliefs and trying to understand and respect the beliefs of others. Most recently, I have been participating in the Houston Department of Health and Human Services Hepatitis B in the Asian Community screening program. I am one of two non-Asian members of the organizational committee, and have once again found myself working in a culture very different from my own.
At the first screening for this program, I worked as a phlebotomist taking blood samples from recent Vietnamese immigrants. At one point, an elderly woman was assigned to my station and started speaking in Vietnamese. I tried so hard to communicate with her, but eventually her daughter came over to translate, and the message was that she wanted her blood drawn by a Vietnamese phlebotomist. It is human nature to trust those most like us - and she and I were very different. Rationally, I understood this. Emotionally, I desperately wanted to be accepted and trusted by this group of people I had been working so hard to serve. I pondered this as I prepared for the next screening event, also in the Vietnamese community. I found articles, websites, and an online course in cultural competence and bridging cultural differences regarding hepatitis B and the Asian community. I spoke to my advisor, who is from Taiwan, about differences in health beliefs among different Asian populations, and how I could best overcome these challenges of integration. During the next screening, I sat next to a very helpful Vietnamese nurse who taught me Vietnamese phrases in between patients, so that I could say “my name is Jordan,” and “thank you”. Though many people smiled at my horrible pronunciation, it showed them that I cared about them enough to try to communicate, and I felt the other volunteers showed more confidence in me as a part of the team as I tried to be culturally informed and sensitive.
Through these experiences I have learned that trust, understanding, and integration come through hard work, being willing to put yourself out there (and possibly butchering a new language), and caring about the people you serve. This knowledge will help me in my efforts to integrate into the community and culture I am assigned to work in as a Peace Corps volunteer. Perhaps more important than this knowledge is the desire I have gained - the world is full of people different than me, and each difference is something I can learn from, and something that will help me grow as a person and provide better service to others.
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