My whole Peace Corps process began about a year and a half ago in August of 2009. I had been thinking about the PC for a long time but wasn't sure if I was really prepared to embark on a 27 month long journey in a random country by myself. But, a few weeks after my senior year of college started I received an email saying that all PC applications needed to be received by the end of September in order to be considered for countries with departure dates in August and September of 2010. That email solidified my decision to apply as I wanted to leave a few months after graduation or else I would have to start applying for jobs. I finished the online application in about an hour and left the essays for another day. Since I hate writing essays, especially ones where I have to talk about myself, I pushed that portion of the application off until right before the deadline. Once those were done though, I had to fill out a very extensive medical form asking all kinds of stuff about my history (I wish I would have known then how much of a hassle it was being so brutally honest on that form). I then requested letters from three references and the waiting game began.
To my surprise I heard from my regional recruiter within a couple weeks of submitting my complete application. I had to fill out some more skill assessment forms, questionnaires, legal forms, and get fingerprinted (I felt pretty cool getting escorted and buzzed through doors at the Iowa City Jail). I got all of that stuff sent off by the beginning of November. A few weeks later I got called by the PC Representative at Iowa to set up an interview time. It was set for the Monday that I returned from Thanksgiving break. Leaving the interview I felt as though it went alright, but not great. My suspicions were confirmed when I received an email the next day from my recruiter asking a lot of follow-up questions because they got the impression that I would not be as flexible (in regards to region and assignment) as they wanted me to be. So, again, I had to write some more and convince them that I really wanted to do this regardless of where they placed me. Extremely nervous with my responses, I emailed my recruiter back and received a call from him the next day saying that I had been nominated for Central/South America or the Caribbean in Water Resources leaving in September 2010!
I received my packet with all the medical and dental forms that needed to be filled out about a week later and scheduled appointment after appointment during my winter break. Determined to fill out all my forms correctly and completely the first time, it took me until the end of January to send in my packet. My dental was cleared by the end of February and I thought whew this might not take as long as everyone says it does...man was I wrong.
I hadn't heard anything in months, so at the beginning of May I called the nurse that was assigned to my file. She told me that they were still evaluating medical forms for people leaving over the summer and not to worry. She also told me that I could write a few personal statements about my medical past that would help speed along the process. I sent her the statements hoping to be cleared soon. I still hadn't heard anything by mid-June so I emailed the nurse again to make sure I wasn't forgotten. I got an automated response back saying my close of invitation date wasn't until mid-July so I still had to wait a month. A couple weeks later I got a call from a different nurse saying that my nurse had quit a couple of months before and my application got pushed aside for awhile...whoops. She was super nice, reviewed my stuff, and CLEARED me!!
A day after I got another email asking for my final transcript and an updated resume...woohoo I was almost done with the process! In mid-July I received the call that I had been waiting almost a year for, except it didn't go exactly how I wanted it to go. It turned out that since my medical took so long, all of the programs that I was nominated for in September were full. Such an exciting moment turned sour pretty immediately...it was funny how the Iowa City weather seemed to feel my mood as well, as a bright sunny morning turned into a torrential downpour within a half hour of me receiving the call. Since my programs were full, I was offered to go to Africa and teach math in September or wait until February and do water resources. After a couple of conversions, it was pretty clear to me that I needed to wait until February and do what I really had my heart set on doing.
I met with one of my professors the next day and he told me there were some TA positions available and if I applied to grad school I could have them and take some classes. More or less I had a plan for the next 6 months so I called the PC back and told them I wanted to leave in February and received my invitation packet the next week...I was going to Ecuador!!! My official assignment is an environmental and water resources engineer in the sustainable agriculture program...how cool! I officially accepted on July 24, 2010 and only had 6 months to wait until departure...ha.
The next couple weeks were a daze of finding a place to live for the next semester (as my lease ended less than a week after I accepted my invite), apply to grad school, figure out how I was going to pay for grad school, make sure that I could get the TA positions so that I had a job, etc. Somehow everything fell into place perfectly though. Luckily, I had taken the GRE the previous spring, basically on a whim, so applying to grad school wasn't too difficult. I found a great place to live with four other awesome roommates. I got appointed to two different TA positions that paid very well. Through some awesome grad school TA union contract thing, all my tuition was paid for. And I took three pretty interesting classes on top of it all. Although it started out rocky, this past semester was probably one of the most fun ones that I had at Iowa. And all the while I knew I was leaving for Ecuador on February 2, 2011.
Well the time has finally come, I took my last finals, graded my last set of tests, moved out of my place in Iowa City, and am now back at my parents’ in the Chicago burbs getting everything ready to leave. I received my staging information a couple of days ago and booked my flight leaving O'Hare at 8am on February 2. I'll go to registration in Washington D.C. at noon and then wake up at 3:30 am the next day to leave for Quito, Ecuador! After a year and half long process...I only have 24 more days until I arrive in Quito as a member of Omnibus 105!
