Just starting this thread to hear about new grads who might be doing the programs in the subject.
For context, our DD did a two year Peace Corps assignment following undergraduate school. Our family has a very strong PC tradition (12/120 guests at her wedding were returned PC volunteers). She said it was one of the best experiences of her life, and she continues to build relationships with her second home all these years later.
Anyone else have a student who is doing one of these programs now, or has done so more recently?
One of mine did TFA after graduation (she could have stayed). This position provided experiences and opportunities that helped when she interviewed for the job that followed (unrelated to teaching).
The TFA experience was also valuable when applying to grad school programs in a very competitive field. There were many transferable skills and so many interviewers focused on the experience- and two completed it themselves!
Agree. My kid was done with PC in 2012. The subject still is one that comes up at every single interview she has. In fact, she just interviewed for jobs, and again, they wanted to discuss her PC experience.
My DIL did something very similar to TFA. She said it was called Teach for New Orleans, which is I gather essentially the same kind of program. She wanted to be back in NOLA to work with a professor and also to be with my S (her now DH). She did it for a year before going to grad school. IIRC she did the Teach for NOLA for a year and then worked for her professor for a year (and had another job as well then) before she went to grad school and DS left his job in NOLA to take a job in Silicon Valley.
Two of my daughterâs good friends did these programs. One did TFA during the pandemic. It gave him valuable work experience when no one else was hiring. Her other friend did Americorps during the pandemic, after her job fell through. She went to Montana, made great friends and stayed. I think both would say they had invaluable experiences.
My daughter applied to the PC in, I think, 2019. She got to the assignment stage and they gave her an African post, but it was in an area that was very unsafe, particularly for women. She was told theyâd pick her up and drive her 4 hours from the city (with the airport) and that she wouldnât be able to go back to the city for a long time. I think there was to be one other woman in the group but not necessarily in her station. I didnât even have to say no before she did. This was just way too unsafe for my (or her) comfort.
They said it was this or nothing, so she walked away.
I did Americorps as a 60 year old, and took the bus to a school where I tutored math. I enjoyed the experience and would have done it again the next year but they didnât have a school I could get to without commuting for an hour and the school was only about 4 miles away but the way the bus/train worked, I would have had to go about 20 minutes north and then 30 south, or I could walk it in the same 50 min (but at 6 am and on a path that wasnât safe. No.
I want to add, for college grads, I think these three opportunities distinguish a person from the masses. All require that a person go out of their âcomfort zoneâ in some wayâŠand be a self starter who also follows directions well.
Somewhere in the mission of all these is to develop leaders.
My DD still canât believe how impactful her PC work is still viewedâŠand in her case, how it has helped in her current career (you can message me for details if you are interested).
I will be pleasantly surprised if the Peace Corps survives the federal cuts and with the way federal workers abroad have been left hanging and confused, i would not advise anyone to explore the PC in the next 2 years at least. Please encourage any young person look into AmeriCorps or TfA instead of PC for now.
My daughter is in Americorps FEMAcorps right now and will finish in May - sheâs on a deferral year and will be a college freshman in the fall. I think sheâs overall enjoying the experience, though she finds a lot of things challenging. I think the illogic of some aspects of the government was a bit of a surprise to her, and the 12 hour days/6 days a week while on disaster spikes has definitely been an adjustment. Sheâs learned how to cook group meals and survive on a food budget of ~$5/day (they pool their money as a group). She was sent to North Carolina for Hurricane Helene recovery, worked at a border town, and been to DC over a very tumultuous political year. Some really valuable perspective in there. IMHO, itâs been a very good experience for her, and I think sheâs really grown up a lot.
We felt the same way about our daughterâs Peace Corps assignment in a very rural area of Rwanda where she taught high school students. She learned so much about herself, how to be a self starter, how to do so much with so little, how to be the only westerner who ever lived in her village, etc.
Our daughter recently returned to Rwanda for a work related trip, and was thrilled to be there. While she was teaching in English, it helped that she knew Kinyarwanda because some of the folks from villages continue to speak that language, and especially the older folks. She hopes to return annually.
It is her second home.
But it does still surprise her that this 27 months of her life continue to be a focus whenever she interviews and the folks see it on her resume. It sure sparks great and interesting conversation!
As a twice- returned Peace Corps volunteer myself, and someone who has a deep love of the agency and the experience, despite its flaws and inconsistencies, I sadly agree. Since the gutting of USAID and so much more, I am bracing myself for the ax to fall for Peace Corps. It is the antithesis of the current administration and honestly, I worry a little about the safety of volunteers in the field now with the world animosity that the US is inviting upon ourselves now.
Having said this, I encouraged my daughter her whole life to consider it, but it just isnât her! She did seriously consider doing Teach for America next year but more as a Plan B after college graduation. But it seems that her Plan A has come to fruition! I would have been proud had she volunteered, but then, Iâm also proud of her Plan A too.
There are many programs under Americorps, and some are just for seniors (grandparent tutoring or mentoring, for example). I was in a teaching program that had people from 18 to âoldâ (I wasnât the oldest). I actually think it was poorly run for that reason. Some 18 year olds who had just graduated from hs were tutors and werenât that good at dealing with kids. The guy I worked with (new college grad) was great with math and computers (lots of the qualifying classes are online and our lessons had to be printed off) but he had an anxiety attack the first day as he didnât know what to talk to 10 year olds about. He worked into the position but I think he would have been lost without me (and I definitely benefited from his skills). The next year he worked in a hs.
We had a lot of the people we trained with drop out in the first month or so.
This was an Americorps program but managed by the state (Colorado). It was also during covid so all training was online, there was a lot of crap (really, I hated it) about inclusion. TWO HOURS on pronouns, another whole session on whether we could say Merry Christmas or even Happy holidays since not all kids would be having a happy holiday. Well, our school had Santas and snowmen posted all around, and even though there was a large majority of Muslim kids, they all wanted to celebrate Christmas, at least with the games and treats. I think the program was looking for issues when there werenât problems. Just teach them math!
So yes, plenty of opportunities for seniors. I earned a Segal award that I could use for classes, but I transferred it to my daughter and she used it to pay student loans. As for qualifications, those are by program. For mine, since I was in a school, I had to do the clearances required to be in a school (fingerprints for criminal records, child clearances). We didnât even have medical requirements but I made sure I had all the covid and whooping cough vaccinations.
@twoinandone as the parent of a trans (non-binary) kid, I would say most of my friends and family could use that pronoun training. Maybe not two hours but it does seem to take folks awhile to get it.
Some people donât need any classes on pronouns, some understand after 15 minutes or so. Others? It can be a 2 hour presentation or a 2 day one, wonât make any difference if the tutor doesnât want to ask about pronouns or use them.. I found they just kept saying the same thing for 2 hours, that you MUST use the preferred pronoun (even if the parents had other ideas, and that was the case with one of my students) and you couldnât just use the first name to avoid a mistake. âJane and I went to the storeâ? NO. You must find out Janeâs preferred pronouns.