anyways, I've just finished typing up the first draft of my aspiration statement for the peace corps. This is the only thing that the country directors see from us before we leave. none of the NINE months worth of application information and medical forms and such get sent off. why? i don't know. anyways. i thought i would send this out so everyone could have an idea as to what it is that i aspire from the PC. lol.
Aspiration Statement
Gabriel Vander Hey
September 29, 2008
As I began thinking about which way I would present this aspiration statement, it occurred to me that I had two choices as how to go about this. I could write about me and my hopes for my Peace Corps service in a way that tried to express a bit about who I am, or I could simply send off a bulleted form answering the questions in a mundane way. I’ve decided to let this statement speak a bit about me, without ruffling up too many feathers.
At this point in the game, it is a bit strange that I am sitting here writing about my aspirations and hopes about what I will get out of the Peace Corps. Along this journey, I’ve been told by PCVs and RPCVs that flexibility is the key to success during my Peace Corps service. I’ve tried to go into this with few expectations, but it is impossible to do.
I expect many things. I expect that I will be lonely. I expect that I will be frustrated. I expect to be submerged in cultures that are foreign to me. I expect I’ll complain about the heat. I expect to learn a new language. I expect that I will have students who may not want to learn. I expect the food will not always agree with me. I expect that I’ll wonder what is happening on the other side of the world. I expect my family will be concerned about me while I’m in a country on the other side of the world that most of them have never heard of. And I expect that I’ll grow to love all of these things before I have to leave
A: The Professional attributes that you plan to use, and what aspirations you hope to fulfil, during your Peace Corps service.
During the course of my Peace Corps assignment, I plan to use qualities such as organizational skills, creativity, and resourcefulness to improve the quality of the English education for my students and working environments for my colleagues. I currently work with children at a summer camp and have become accustomed to working with very little and making what little is given to me into fun and innovative activities. It is also this work environment that has taught me the importance of cultural acceptance in the work place. My co-workers come from countries all over the world. From countries that are English speaking and some non-English speaking. I have fallen in love with working in an environment that is filled with varying languages and social practices. Working with others is a passion of mine, but it is what I learn from them that is my true love. I hope that the strenuous working conditions of the Peace Corps will push these skills that I’ve learned further than they’ve ever been pushed before and allow me to improve upon those skills that I will be using during my service.
B: Your strategies for working effectively with host country partners to meet expressed needs.
For me, the two most important strategies to use when working with host country partners are flexibility and patience. Having worked with many people from many different cultures, I understand the capacity for miscommunication and the effects it can have on working environments. It is because of this reason that flexibility is so important. I plan on listening to host country partners as I will be the one out of place and they will be my greatest asset when meeting the needs of my assigned program. It is their country, and they are the ones who will give insight on how to implement new plans and improve upon older practices. Ultimately, it is working as partners while using flexibility and patience that will benefit everyone in the end.
C: Your strategies for adapting to a new culture with respect to your own cultural background.
Growing up in a small southern town in a middle-class family never exposed me to many new cultures. As a child, I thought my Creole/French speaking Cajun family were some of the most interesting people that I had ever met, and I never imagined that there was anything else on earth that could captivate me as much as they did. As I grew older, I began to see the world outside of our little bayou towns, and the more I learned about other peoples and the ways they lived their lives, the more it seemed that I appreciated they ways my family lived its life. When I travelled off to college, I made the decision to get to know as many people from as many different backgrounds as possible. Not by studying them, but by making as many friends as possible and by volunteering with several different minority clubs on campus. It was my appreciation of other people that eventually led to my being chosen as the first Caucasian chairperson of LSU’s black student recruitment program. During this program, called SpringFest, I was chosen as a student leader on a panel whose discussion was based on student life at LSU. One girl stood up during the discussion and said that she thought it was amazing that I was “breaking down walls.” I replied that I thought the problem was that people thought there were walls. It was that moment that I realized that the differences between people, the differences that I had loved for so long, were merely superficial and that looking beyond them was what I truly loved. I understand that I will never truly be a part of someone else’s society, but acceptance into one is not impossible. So when asked what strategies I use for adapting to a new culture, I have to say that an accepting attitude, a willingness for change, and the appreciation for what makes cultures unique are what I use to adapt but still appreciate the strong cultural background that I grew up with.
D: The skills and knowledge you hope to gain during pre-service training to best serve your future community and project.
During pre-service training I hope to gain an understanding of the language of my community before anything else. Whether or not this is realistic, I cannot say at this point. Language will be one of the most important skills from a teaching standpoint. It is unrealistic for me to expect to walk into a classroom and have chairs filled with students who will know what I’m saying. Or to even have chairs for the students to fill at that! I also hope to further my teaching skills. I’ve spent numerous summers filling out lesson plans for theatre classes at summer camp and countless hours planning activities that peak the interest of my campers, but have never worked in a classroom. I hope that during my training, these skills can also be furthered and translated to the classroom setting. I do learn things like this quickly, but training in these areas will greatly boost my confidence and skill level and will be a better asset to my community of service.
E. How you think the Peace Corps service will influence your personal and professional aspirations after your service ends.
It would be dishonest of me to write that I knew how the Peace Corps will influence my personal and professional aspirations after the end of my service. I cannot begin to imagine the personal growth that I will experience. There is a large part of me that would love to return to school, earn my graduate degree and pursue teaching until I reach senility or retirement! But my teaching experience in
