Peace Corps Interview

I had my Peace Corps Interview yesterday over the phone with my recruiter, Nicole. Her asking questions lasted about an 45 minutes. I asked questions for about 15 minutes. Many questions were asked regarding cultural differences, how I deal with things in certain situations, etc. The interview went very well overall. Since the programs that begin in December of 2010 don't start recruitment until December 1st of 2009, Nicole is putting my application on hold AGAIN. However, I was told to email her after Thanksgiving to get my application taken off hold and get it ready for putting me into a program. Only a few more weeks until things get moving again.

Continue Forward!

On my way to do some volunteer hours at the YMCA yesterday I got a call from Nicole. She said that she was very impressed with the initiative I've taken to get these hours done, and so quickly to boot. She said that she is going to take my application off hold since I'll have my hours done next Friday, and that she wanted to set up a time for my interview. Very exciting news! However, I'm a very very busy man so the best time I could find was Monday from 4:30-5:30pm, which happens to be the time between my volunteer hours and work. Hopefully I can drive fast and get to work and park my car before my interview starts. Just another step closer!

Volunteer hours will control the month of November.

I should have posted last week, but I've been busy. Sue me.

I got volunteer hours set up with the YMCA starting the first week of November. I'll be doing roughly 6-10 hours a week. I contacted my recruiter after those hours were set up. Went I sent the email informing Nicole, I also asked her if she needs three months of service, or if there was a set amount of hours needed. She responded saying I needed three months of service OR 30 hours, whichever came first. Which means I'll have this service work done in a month. Especially after this past weekend. It was the Alternative Fall Break here on campus. We worked at a rescue mission. I got my advisor for the trip to verify my hours and that came to a total of 12. I'm basically halfway there now. Woot!!!

Phone Call

I received a phone call from an unknown number today. When I answered I was greeted by my recruiter Nicole. She said I almost qualify for a Community Outreach program. I just need to have a bit more volunteer experience. So for now she is putting my application on hold. I need to contact her when I get some volunteer work set up. She says I need about three months of volunteer work. This coming week I will hunt down some places to do volunteer work (and hopefully I'll be able to do it every weekend). This was good and bad news, but mostly good news to me. I'm close. I'll keep this blog updated once I hear back from Nicole after I get the volunteer work set up.

Finger-printed by the Po-Po

Yesterday I received the next step in my application process. It containted info about a National Agency Check (NAC), the form that I need to fill out for that, and two fingerprint charts. I called up the University Police to see if I would be able to do it there, or if I'd have to go downtown. They said they could do my fingerprints, but only during normal business hours...which were 7am-3pm (I didn't know those were normal business hours). So today I went in during my break between my Friday classes. Took about 15 minutes. After that I went straight to the University Post Office to get them sent out. They should reach Chicago on Monday; Tuesday at the latest. I believe I should be getting a call from my recruiter soon. I'm so stoked!

First Step

Last night I finally finished my Peace Corps application. After about a week of procrastinating, I found some creativity and wrote my final essay. It's a great feeling to finally start this process that I've waited so long for. In the next few weeks my reference letters will be sent in, and I should be contaced for an interview. I'm excited!