A. The professional attributes that you plan to use, and what aspirations you hope to fulfill, during your Peace Corps service.
I anticipate that my skills in both assessment and communication will be vital to my professional service in the Peace Corps. By assessment I mean the ability to take stock in situations and quickly and aptly assess the best solutions based on the needs of those around me. This skill has been essential in my work as a fundraiser, event chair, and English teacher. My intuition for social dynamics has often aided me in innovative project planning and efficient execution of tasks. Having worked in a formal office setting, I have worked with a wide variety of both professionals and clients and navigated their various demands, expectations, and needs. Communicating and understanding their explicit and implicit needs through an office hierarchy has been my role as the administrative assistant. While these skills will be challenged in a new culture such as Indonesia, I believe that they are adaptable. My time spent as an English teacher and tutor has given me a practical foundation that will assist me in my Volunteer Assignment.
It has been almost exactly a year since I first submitted my application to the Peace Corps. In that time I have accomplished academic goals, graduated from college, worked in a full-time job, and volunteered in a new field I had never anticipated. My aspirations in service include successfully engaging in a new culture and finding real relationships, with my volunteer peers and also Indonesians that I will meet in my community. I also hope to challenge a tendency towards homogenous thoughts and assumptions of others that are somewhat insidious in any culture- the self-centered focus on one’s own world, be it country or city or town, as the central society while ignoring the vast, global population with all its variance. But I also hope that I will accomplish things completely unanticipated and unexpected now in the present day, just as I never anticipated joining the Peace Corps when I was a freshman in college. I aspire to learn new things about myself, about my own abilities and latent talents that I have yet to experience.
B. Your strategies for working effectively with host country partners to meet expressed needs.
My primary strategy is to remain flexible, with the knowledge that business transactions, planning and executing programs, even time restraints and deadlines, are viewed with varying degrees of importance in every country, and every region of a country. This flexibility and open-mindedness to the differences in work expectations will alleviate some of the frustrations that come with working in a new country. Acknowledging and respecting these differences will improve my work skills, my personal flexibility, and my communication with my Indonesian partners. That being said, it is still essential to be persistent with plans and projects, and to keep new ideas active. Being assertive but not aggressive or domineering is necessary for expanding possible projects in my community.
Investing my time into my community and whole-heartedly building relationships with the people around me will be the only way I can accurately understand their needs and how I can apply my skills to their lives. Investing myself into these relationships will lead to opportunities to discuss, learn from one another, and work together towards accomplishments. I am in Indonesia as a resource and facilitator to my counterparts, with the skills I bring, but they are equally resources and facilitators to me as I adjust to a new culture and learn from them in both the classroom and the greater community.
I will hold myself to high expectations to acknowledge and respect the Indonesian culture, including its workplace culture and education system. To best meet these expectations I will be constantly open to observing, processing, and learning about my counterparts and their views and actions.
C. Your strategies for adapting to a new culture with respect to your own cultural background.
My previous studies in cultural anthropology have given me a broad, if somewhat shallow, preparation for cultural differences and variations around the world, but they have also given me a deep respect for these variations. I will be in Indonesia as a teacher, but I will also be there to learn just as much as I could teach my students. My enthusiasm for learning and experiencing new things will be an asset as I navigate living in Indonesia. It is necessary to offer myself all the patience and grace in dealing with my future mistakes, mishaps, and embarrassments I would offer to a newly arrived guest of the United States.
Adapting to a new culture will call for constant evaluation and self-awareness. I am a self-reflective and open-minded individual, and these personality traits will help me to defuse in moments of high stress and cultural uncertainty. Responsible assessment of my emotions and worries will assist me in adjustment. Communication and community with both my fellow volunteers and relationships at home will keep me balanced and thoughtful.
My Peace Corps service will call for me to respect and observe cultural, religious, and social expectations that I have not experienced in the United States, and I am fully anticipating these expectations. I have no qualms about the potentially conservative requirements of Indonesian culture, which may not align with my personal and political beliefs but still deserve all of the respect and dignity I would ask for myself.
D. The skills and knowledge you hope to gain during pre-service training to best serve your future community and project.
My experience as an English teacher has, until my service with the Peace Corps, been in an informal classroom setting, without quizzes, tests, or rigorous student assessments. All of my teaching and tutoring classes have been free, non-binding programs. Students might come every week, or only for a few classes. Because of this, I have learned to adjust lessons to the irregular scope of attendance. While I have gained teaching skills that are very flexible and adaptive to the students’ needs, I have not taught in a classroom where I am preparing students for graded assignments or exams. During pre-service I look forward to gaining experience in teaching and testing students on material learned, how to respond to poor grades, and how to assist students who might be struggling with the pace of the material.
Clearly, I look forward to learning Bahasa Indonesia and attempting to use the language as frequently as possible, while accepting that I will be making mistakes as frequently as possible. I also anticipate gaining, in both my pre-service training and homestay, significant knowledge of cultural communication, verbal and non-verbal. I look forward to engaging with my host family and building relationships that will help me to appreciate Indonesia on a national, cultural level but also on a very personal level. I also expect that some of the most important skills I will gain during pre-service will be personally developed, as I mentally and emotionally adjust to a new country.
All of these skills- new lessons in teaching English, practical language skills in Bahasa Indonesia, inferred cultural skills I will learn in daily life, personal adaptation- will combine to prepare me both practically and mentally for life as a volunteer
E. How you think Peace Corps service will influence your personal and professional aspirations after your service ends.
When applying for the Peace Corps, I, as many potential volunteers do, imagined living in a radically new environment, stripped of the basic amenities I am accustomed to and rebuilding my lifestyle from the ground up. In preparation for my service in Indonesia, I have gleaned that amenities will not be the mark of my changed lifestyle, but instead the cultural maneuverings that I can only slightly comprehend as an invitee. I anticipate that this upheaval of my own cultural daily norms will be frustrating, but also edifying. Personally, I hope to grow as empathetic person, to grow in a world view that is encompassing and dignifying to all human beings. I believe that this cultural immersion as a volunteer will encourage that growth.
Professionally, I see the Peace Corps as an important milestone in my long term career plan in the non-profit sector. My interest in the global state of human rights and education access will be sharpened but also more aware of realities after service in the Peace Corps. My fieldwork as a teacher in Indonesia will prepare me to see outside the American education system and better understand worldwide the needs of teachers and students. It is impossible to have an accurate understanding of global education standards without the actual perspective of nations’ teachers.
I just sent this to my Country Desk in Indonesia! It took me a long time... some seriously big questions.
