DD Wants to Join Peace Corp.

Parent Cafe
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<p>Currently, DD is a Junior in College, major in Biology. Out of the blue, she wrote that she would like to join Peace Corp for two years upon graduation. Since the application takes about 9 months, she is going to start the application ASAP. She is good in French, so she is considering Africa. With her background, she said she may qualify to teach science.</p>

<p>I have heard about the experiences in Peace Corp, but never had to face a decision like this. And I am not sure the future employment opportunities upon finishing her 2 years stint. At one time she is going to apply med school and now this sudden change of hart. Any help is welcomed…</p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

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<p>Our daughter returned from a two year Peace Corps assignment in December. She absolutely LOVED her two years…she taught secondary school biology in Rwanda. DD completed her application the August prior to her senior year, and received her appointment the following August…almost one year from application to appointment. </p>

<p>Your daughter does need to understand that PC does not always honor requests for countries and my DD says this actually reduces your likelihood of an appointment. In Africa, even in french speaking countries, the locals speak some African tongue. However, her knowledge of a second language will be an asset.</p>

<p>You can PM me for more details.</p>

<p>Our DD is the 5th member of our family to complete a PC term. It’s a life changing experience.</p>

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<p>We have a good family friend who recently spent two years in the Peace Corps doing HIV-related work in Lesotho. She came back, did a Masters in Public Health at Johns Hopkins, and is now in Nepal. Peace Corps can open doors, especially the internal ones.</p>

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<p>I had a friend do Peace Corps, and he loved it. To the best of my knowledge it did not impede his career path (education) at all, and I would say he has been an exemplary person. I would think it might have a little more career impact in the sciences, but perhaps not as much as you might think - employers value character. Wish her luck!</p>

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<p>Thanks. Any one had hands on experiences with Peace Corps? What is the live like in Africa or elsewhere? Is it a volunteer job? Do we have to pay for the out of the pockets? What will be the impact on future advancements if med school is in consideration?</p>

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<p>Is your daughter tough, independent and confident? Has she traveled in the developing world? Has she had the experience of being the only white person surrounded by those of another race? Of being a minority and “sticking out?” </p>

<p>I think joining the Peace Corps is a fabulous thing to do - for the right person. In my experience though, too many young people think of it as some kind of a back-up plan because they don’t have any other ideas what to do after graduating. </p>

<p>I’m not saying your daughter is one of them - and in fact PC is pretty good at weeding out those applicants - but it’s something to consider as she embarks on this process: does she have the experience and the personality necessary to survive/contribute as a PC worker?</p>

<p>If she does, be happy for her: as others pointed out, a stint in the Peace Corps is usually an enriching life-changer that can open many doors later. And don’t worry - you’re not the only parent freaked out at the idea of her child going to Africa, alone! Read up about the Peace Corps and try to find online other parents whose children are/were in PC to educate yourself - and to give yourself a bit of courage about this adventure as well. Good luck!</p>

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<p>

You can do the Peace Corps and then do medical school, but it’s darn near impossible to do med school and then the Peace Corps. (Yes, some people manage to do things differently, but blah blah blah - there’s a reason why most people have their fun before medical school, not after.)</p>

<p>Paradoxically, I view it as a sign of maturity: if she really understands what medical school is about, she will know that she has to get any travel/do-good/adventure type stuff out of her system now. Once she starts med school, she will be on that hamster wheel until she retires: four years of medical school, four to six years of a residency, her Boards, then working her butt off to repay her loans and build a practise. </p>

<p>For the most part, medical school closes doors - it opens the door to being a physician, but closes almost every other door out there. Why you’re hurrying her down that track is beyond me.</p>

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<p>I’ll send you a PM with the details. Peace Corps gives its volunteers stipends per month so that they can pay living expenses as a local. This can include rent, utilities, and food allowances. In addition, PC pays for their plane ticket to their country and plane ticket home. Plus they get a stipend upon completion of their term of service to help with relocation back to the U.S. it’s NOT a lot, but my DD found her living allowance to be more than generous for the local conditions.</p>

<p>If your kiddo has a Perkins loan, 15% is canceled for each year of service. Nice perk!</p>

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<p>Aries…actually you are portraying PC as “a lot of fun”. Sorry, it’s a job, and not a particularly easy one. PC does accept doctors…student loans are deferred while in PC.</p>

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<p>Tumper, I’d be happy to see what you are going to say about it in PM. </p>

<p>My DD has been very independent even before she went to college. She packed her lunch every day for her high school years and she joined various volunteering on her own accord. She learned professional croshaying on her own and weaved blankets to be donated to the hospital for those early born babies that earned her admissions to a top university, even though her Score is a bit short of their admission standards.</p>

<p>I am not freaked out about her living in Africa for two years, but just concerned. My friend had been there and told me that was hard life. He, nevertheless, became a prominent investment banker and is in control of billions of funds.</p>

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<p>“… but it’s darn near impossible to do med school and then the Peace Corps”</p>

<p>Not PC, but there’s definitely an option - [Doctors Without Borders](<a href=“http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/work/?ref=main-menu”>http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/work/?ref=main-menu&lt;/a&gt;)</p>

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<p>

No, I’m not; you’re just hypersensitive. </p>

<p>That the PC accepts doctors and defers their loans is really beside the point: the interruption in life is harder to deal with in the late twenties/early thirties (that’s when people want to get married, buy a house, and have kids). Likewise, the interruption to a career path is fundamentally different from taking a detour before med school at the age of 22. </p>

<p>You also have to make interest payments on unsubsidised loans while in the Peace Corps, and that’s a lot easier to do when your loans are $15k out of undergrad, rather than $350k from medical school. (Even if you didn’t have to make the payments, the interest alone on two years of medical school debt is enough to buy a Lexus.)</p>

<p>This is basic stuff, Thumper. Really basic.</p>

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<p>Look, all, I am making an assumption that the OP’s family are not a bunch of richy-riches who can pay for med school out of pocket and enable their daughter, armed with a half-million dollars in college education, to trot around the globe as a humanitarian version of a socialite.</p>

<p>The moral worth of a person’s goals does not change the financial realities that they face, and a kid with hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical school debt will be operating under an entirely different financial reality than a kid straight out of undergrad. </p>

<p>Kudos to the OP’s D. She gets what many of her peers do not, and apparently, many adults: life-consuming volunteer work is for the unencumbered.</p>

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<p>My s has been active since his college days with Engineers Without Borders. Its a very different experience, but they worked with the local PC volunteers when on site in Honduras and Nicaragua. IIRC, they have since pulled the PC volunteers out of Honduras because it was unsafe. I applaud your daughter, Artlovers. This is not a walk in the park. It takes a special kind of person to make this choice. And from what I understand, the competition for acceptance is pretty fierce. Thumper can speak to that.</p>

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<p>About a half dozen people I know have spent time in the Peace Corps. It’s been a mixed bag of experiences.</p>

<p>First, though things have improved in the last couple of years, rape is a real possibility in some countries. There were Congressional hearings about the poor way the Peace Corps was handling this. If you don’t remember them, start here. [Peace</a> Corps Volunteers Speak Out About Rape, Violence](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>Peace Corps Volunteers Speak Out About Rape, Violence | HuffPost Latest News)</p>

<p>I agree with the statement that your D can’t assume the Peace Corps will honor her request as to where she will be assigned. One of my young neighbors speaks fluent Swahili and requested Africa. She ended up in a mostly Muslim area of a former Soviet Union republic. She got deathly ill and the medical treatment was less than wonderful. One illness was the result of a bite by a possibly rabid animal. She had to travel over 20 hours on a train by herself to get the vaccine shots. She had no problems with violence, but one of the other female volunteers was gang raped in broad daylight on a public bus. </p>

<p>Her boyfriend speaks fluent Spanish and requested South America. He ended up in Africa. </p>

<p>Another one of the young men from my neighborhood ended up in Senegal. He had a wonderful experience there. </p>

<p>A young woman who had just graduated from UMichigan engineering had a wonderful 2 years in Africa. Country had wonderful cell phone service and she was able to talk to her parents frequently. </p>

<p>An older woman–65±-did 2 tours in the Ukraine. She owned her own small jewelry business and ended up teaching women how to make jewelry at home and market it internationally. Program was very successful and she was asked to come back.</p>

<p>A friend from college went in her late 50s. She’s a nurse and spent 2 years in Micronesia. Loved the people and had a wonderful time. </p>

<p>One young man from my neighborhood moved to South America. His girlfriend was in the Peace Corps there. He speaks fluent Spanish. His girlfriend lived alone in a remote area. She came close to being raped by young men who broke into her home twice. She was very frightened. He moved to South America and lived with her for the last year of her tour. </p>

<p>Based on the experience of the young people I know, it seems very worthwhile to get EMT training or at least very advanced first aid training before going. This can affect your assignment. Even if it doesn’t, knowing what to do in a medical emergency–like being bitten by a probably rabid animal–is a good thing.</p>

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<p>We know several people that have served in the Peace Corps in many different parts of the world. DH’s colleague has a daughter who graduated in 2011 and is a legacy as he was in the Peace Corps and has remained an active Peace Corps alumni… the admission wait time now from first application is 2 years and now admission has been delayed further because of the sequester. Older d’s friend had requested Vietnam because she had study abroad experience there but as a native Russian-born speaker, the language capability moved her up a year on the interview/admit process and she was placed in Georgia. While it was an interesting experience, it was not what she had hoped for. She developed several health problems, perhaps related to the limited diet options where she was placed and it was very difficult to get diagnosed and treated appropriately not to mention time-consuming to travel to Tbilisi the one place in the country with adequate health facilities.</p>

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<p>PC has an excellent website which you should explore.
Also, there are many blogs by current volunteers–reading these might help you get a feel for daily life of a volunteer. Don’t worry about finances. As a parent, you won’t need to pay anything. </p>

<p>H and I met while serving in PC (in Botswana-southern Africa). D’s good friend, also with a Bio. degree, and French minor asked for a French speaking country and in going to Guinea next month to teach HS Chemistry. Often language or regional preferences will be honored, but, in my case, we had both French and Spanish speakers sent to an English speaking country.
PC is definitely a life-changing experience. Not all good, but very interesting and worthwhile. For women, safety issues/sexual harassment/assault are a big concern.
Just don’t expect it to be like the USA–the biggest thing I learned is that women in other countries very often do not enjoy the rights and freedoms that we do in the USA. Follow the rules for your country and culture. These “rules” may include things like: Dress modestly (could mean never wearing pants or shorts, wearing below-the-knee dresses/skirts only, covering the head, etc.), Stay with a group. Always have a male escort. Don’t drink alcohol. Do not go out after dark, etc. Expect that female volunteers will be more restricted than male volunteers.
You have to be willing to rough it (may live without running water, electricity) and willing to eat foods that may seem very unappealing to you. Health issues are another concern (PC gave us a first-aid kit and the book “Where there is No Doctor” about basic first aid, and a bottle of vitamins.) I had a severe case of dysentery and also was bitten by a dog. We all had rabies shots, and had to get more if bitten.</p>

<p>PC service can only help your D’s resume or med school application. It is admired. Just the fact that you served helps start conversations. Many of my fellow volunteers (including H) entered med school after PC–and all of them had been liberal arts majors. Some also entered foreign service or international aid organizations, or went into masters programs for education. I can’t tell you how many people over the years, upon hearing that H and I served in PC, said “Oh, I always wanted to do that, BUT. . .” And there was always something that held them back (parents’ fear for safety, loss of potential income at home, “giving up 2 years of their lives,” etc.)
I’d say that in PC I gained at least 5 years of “experience” in two years. It was rough in many ways, but a great experience for me. Volunteers can stay in touch with family more easily now because communication has improved so much.</p>

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<p>Peace Corps also accepts volunteers of all ages. The volunteers are NOT all recent college grads in their 20s. They are older with life’s experiences that they bring to the work. My DDs group of 70 had a number of older folks in the group. One of our relatives was 46 when she entered the PC.</p>

<p>It is NOT for everyone. But for many it is a positive life changing experience. </p>

<p>DD was a trained EMT…it didn’t affect her assignment at all. She really wanted to be a health volunteer, but was a science teacher. She quipped at one point that it looked like all the history and English majors were health volunteers.</p>

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<p>.My son’s childhood best friend is in Africa, and his g/f in S america. To be placed together, they would have had to be officially engaged. My sister’s friend worked her whole life as a trainer for those going to S America. Another friend went to Nepal, which was very lonely. Being in a group makes a HUGE difference. </p>

<p>I see no negatives about any kind of future employment, but it can be a tough few years. When you get more info about where DD will be placed, I’ll send you specific email addresses.</p>

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<p>BTW…I agree that the Peace Corps website has a huge amount of information.</p>