Question about the Peace Corps?

I have a Bachelor of Science: major- history minor- political science

Okay, first to cover the debt question. If you have loans, the Peace Corps allows you to defer them–as long as they are gov’t loans. If you have private loans, you have to speak with each organization individually, explain the situation and that you want to do the thing where you are temporarily under the category where you don’t have enough money to pay, thus they defer them for a period of time. However, if you have debt like credit debt, all of that must be paid off by the time you leave, but you can still apply without it hurting you, they can sometimes help you find ways to deal with the debt.

Score for the history major–me too. The fact that you have a BS and have work experience (and was the sales manager) is a good start. Do you have any volunteer experience? Its not a requirement to be nominated, but they highly prefer it. If you don’t have any, after they nominate you they will most likely request you get some that is relevant to the work area they nominated you for. I was nominated for Youth, so I went to volunteer at a day camp. However, sometimes they won’t mention that, but I HIGHLY recommend getting (more) volunteer experience no matter what, because once it gets down to the wire….if someone else did go get more volunteer experience but you didn’t, they may invite that person but not you. In the last few months, it has started to get a lot more competitive in order to be invited.

Nomination: when the recruiter gives you the information about where they MAY send you, you find out the region/work/month. This is only what they are expecting, and is not concrete, many times it changes. ie. my nomination was Latin America/Youth Development/August 2008
–versus–
Invitation: the official acceptance of you into the program, they send you all the information about the country and work in the mail, and you have 10 days to formally accept. That’s when it is in concrete that that is where you are going. ie. my invitation was El Salvador/Youth Development/September 2008 (see? my invite was slightly different than my nomination)

As for pay–you get a “stipend”….that is each month (or however your particular country program would decide to do it) they give you money that will cover your cost of living (ie. food, rent, necessities). It won’t be what you are used to in the United States, and it will be near the level of the locals–usually ever so slightly above–but move volunteers say they have plenty of money for anything they need, and often have a good amount left over for splurging or travel. At the end of your 27 months with the Peace Corps, you get approx. $6000 to spend how you want. One girl I know of traveled around Africa and Asia for a year–all on that. Other people use it to pay off their loans that they are returning to, others use it to get a place to live….basically, its up to you! It doesn’t sound like a lot of money that you get paid, but its more than enough. Its especially enough considering that while in country and for a couple months after returning home, you have health care covered by the Peace Corps–so you don’t have to worry about that!

As for what you could do. I don’t know your entire resume….like what other jobs or volunteer work or clubs you’ve been involved with. However, seeing that you were a sales manager and poli-sci minor, one possibility could be to look at placing you in a business role. (the website tends to just say “business” but there are probably about 30 different sub-types/specialties of business they place people in). If you’ve ever had experience with children or tutoring, they may also look to put you in Youth Development. Or if you are CPR/First Aid certified or ever worked/volunteers at something like that they might look at Health Extension. When you apply, you get to mark you top 3 work choices, and when you interview, you get to tell them again. When you interview you can stress your preference and why, and ask what sort of volunteering you could do to make you a more competitive candidate. You also get to mark/say your top region choices (not country, just region: latin america, caribbean, eastern europe/central asia, africa, north africa/middle east, asia, pacific). If you feel very strongly that you would really like to be placed in one region, then you can express that. However, if you have a strong preference towards work or region, always have a logical reason (ie. “I want to work with children in the future and have done so in the past so I feel it would be my best placement” or “I hope to continue my career with work in Asia” as opposed to “its too hot” or “I think its boring”–you get the idea)

Sorry so long, but I hope it helped! Listing some sources below, totally suggest checking them out!

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