After hearing from Placement, weeknights feel like Christmas Eve.

Oh the anticipation of maybe getting that 5:15AM e-mail with a status update which, upon logging into your toolkit, will tell you "Congratulations! You have been invited, now you can stop stressing about where you may be living for two years!"

Every morning that I wake up and it isn't there, there is going to be a little bit of disappointment served with my morning cereal and juice.

Oh, Hello Placement Specialist.

I got an e-mail today with the nifty little final questions that seem to happen prior to an invite.  Yay!  I am bit bummed I fell asleep on my mom's couch while hanging with the miniature brother since the e-mail was sent at 1:37 as I could have totally gotten my responses sent back before the end of the work day! Oh well, now I get to be antsy in my pantsy over the weekend.  Here is the e-mail I recieved, in case anyone is curious as to what questions you may be asked (my name is spelled wrong!):

"Hello Kimberly,


I hope you are doing well. I am the Placement and Assessment Specialist responsible for conducting a review of your application.


Below you will find questions which will help in my review. Please respond via email or contact me to schedule a time to talk through your responses.


1. How have you been preparing for Peace Corps service?


2. Have you communicated with current or Returned Peace Corps volunteers regarding challenges you might face?


For instance, the realities that most Volunteers face in any given country, such as:


· working in unstructured settings
· adapting to a lifestyle without the regular comforts of home you are perhaps accustomed to here in the US (i.e., limited access to internet, phone, etc)
· being far away from friends/family for an extended period of time with very limited communication – particularly with not having previous experience overseas
· working at a comparatively basic level and not always seeing tangible results of one’s development efforts
· lack of privacy while living with a host family

Please discuss what coping strategies you are prepared to employ in an effort to overcome these potential challenges.


3. What prompted you to apply?


4. What has been the response of your family and friends to your decision? Do they have any concerns? What are your thoughts on the separation for 27 months with not having spent time overseas previously?


5. Often, Volunteers are placed a fair distance from each other when based in rural areas. How would you handle possibly feeling isolated in this situation?


6. You were originally nominated and are currently being considered for a program in the Eastern Europe region that departs in March 2011. Are you still available for this departure?


7. Has your email or address changed – or will it in the near future?


I appreciate you taking the time to consider your responses to the above and I look forward to hearing from you soon.


Sincerely,
Christa George
Volunteer Placement and Assessment Specialist
Education Skills Desk"

E-mail from Skills Desk

"Dear Kim,


I hope this email finds you well! I'm writing to you from the Peace Corps Placement Office in Washington, D.C. We are busy reviewing and evaluating your Peace Corps application to be sure that everything looks good for you to be approved for service. I reviewed your file this morning and I identified a couple items that needed follow-up.

I would like you to send me an updated professionally formatted resume which includes the following: Name, Address, Phone Number, Permanent E-mail, Summary of Skills, Education, Volunteer and Work Experience and Additional Interests or Skills. Please use a format similar to the following:
English Teacher-8th Grade                                                         March 2008 - Feb 2010


Kline Middle School, Chicago


Develop curriculum and implement interactive lessons


Teach 100+ students daily


Classroom and records management


Parent/teacher communications


Afterschool English Tutor



**Please be sure to tailor your resume to highlight the volunteer and work experiences that are most relevant to your nomination.

Please keep in mind that many computer word processing programs provide nicely formatted resume templates which you can use as a guideline. This document should be no more than two pages long and have exact dates (month/year) for employment/volunteerism. For volunteer experiences please note the approximate hours per week.

Please also complete and return the attached skill addendum with any relevant teaching or tutoring experience you have had.

Once you submit your updated materials, it may take some time before you hear from your Placement Specialist regarding their final evaluation of your application materials. Our current priority is to finish placing applicants nominated to programs with departures between October and December of 2010. Once we have filled these programs, we will begin working more with applicants nominated to programs with departures between January and March of 2011.

Best,

Morgan"
 
Whenever someone has said they got an e-mail requesting an updated resume, I always thought it would be a little short blurby e-mail.  Nope.
 
I updated/slightly re-did my resume and sent back the edu. skills addendum.  After completing those I went back into the "I just don't look too competitive on paper" thing.  Le sigh.
 
Hopefully I will be up and back to volunteering soon thanks to Miss Liz helping me out with her contacts.  I figure if I am going to be working in Gainesville (I start today!), may as well volunteer there too since it will get me out of this tiny town more often.