Essays


When beginning the writing process for my application I found examples of other PCV’s essays very useful to get an idea of what my essays should and shouldn’t look like. For that reason, I thought I would share mine as well. Disclaimer: They sound awful cheesy, I know.

Essay 1

Peace Corps service presents major physical, emotional, and intellectual challenges. You have provided information on how you qualify for Peace Corps service elsewhere in the application. In the space below, please provide a statement (between 250 – 500 words) that includes:
  • Your reasons for wanting to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer; and
  • How these reasons are related to your past experiences and life goals.
  • How you expect to satisfy the Peace Corps 10 Core Expectations (please be specific about which expectations you expect to find most challenging and how you plan to overcome these challenges).
Coming from a long line of educators, service and community involvement are crucial facet of my life. For my parents, service took the form of education and a commitment to impacting the lives of children. I am now finding my own way to impact our world. I have volunteered for international organizations and travelled to Tanzania to learn about the culture and teach in a local village. I want to continue to make a long-term commitment to living, working, and serving abroad. For me, the Peace Corps is the ultimate commitment to service.
When I consider the Peace Corps, I see it as the best springboard toward my career in the professional world of international development. It will offer me a venue to serve while also providing irreplaceable job and language skills that will be applicable to my future development work. It is the perfect combination of my desire to volunteer with my need to gain real-life experience.
I am committed to service in the fields of health, the advancement of women, and development. As an intern for Women for Women International, an organization that works to educate women in conflict areas and help them become self-reliant, I was able to help advance their mission through outreach and marketing. I have also worked with Konbit Sante, a non-profit that supports the development of a sustainable health care system in Haiti.
Last summer I volunteered and taught in northern Tanzania. I initially questioned my ability to make an impact on the village and school. I realized that even though my time was short, my presence had made a difference when a student told me how appreciative she was I came there to learn about Tanzania and to teach English. This one comment was priceless.
 When I think about a twenty-seven month commitment, I know it is no small undertaking. However, with my previous experiences abroad, I know I can take on the challenge of being away from family, friends, and everyday comforts. In Tanzania, I was taught the deeper meaning of family – it is not always biological, and that a different community can create a home-away-from-home.
 The particular Peace Corps values of gaining local trust and confidence, and the expectation of fully integrating into a community, resound with me. I know that one obstacle will be opening myself up completely to a new culture and quickly adapting to my new environment. During my time in Tanzania, I entered a community filled with unfamiliar customs, and struggled with the language barrier. After a short period of adjustment though, I successfully immersed myself into the community and created lasting relationships with the family with whom I stayed. This experience has made me confident in my self-reliance.
Through my past work experiences, international travel, community service, and leadership positions, I possess the skills and experiences to make me successful in the Peace Corps. If selected, I will bring my drive and passion to serve to any area of the world I am placed.


Essay 2

Your success as a Peace Corps Volunteer is based on the trust and confidence you build by living in, and respectfully integrating yourself into, your host community and culture (Core Expectation #4). Describe an experience you have had in living or working in a social or cultural environment different from your own. What specific challenges did you face concerning trust, confidence, and/or integration? What did you learn from this experience that you will bring with you to your Peace Corps service?
During the summer of 2011 I had an opportunity to travel to northern Tanzania as part of a class, through Wheaton College, which focused on education and development in Tanzania. During the month stay my classmates and I experienced two major cities and were fortunate enough to be welcomed into Kikelewa, a rural village on Mount Kilimanjaro. During our stay in Kikelewa we spent a weekend living with families and a week in the local schools teaching English.
Beyond the initial culture shock of entering Tanzania, living with a family for a weekend brought me to a new level of unfamiliarityThe home lacked electricity, hot water, a shower, and a toilet, amenities that we had yet to go without at any of our accommodations up to that point in the trip. While the physical environment took adjusting to, the hardest initial barrier was communication. As part of the class I had undergone a crash course in Swahili, but I was still hesitant. Luckily, the oldest daughter of the family, Rose, was visiting and spoke some English and could serve as a translator. Initially, I felt embarrassed not knowing how to speak Swahili. After a night of charades-like acting out of all of our words I quickly learned that while not speaking the same language was a barrier, it was much smaller than I had originally anticipated. Over the course of my stay I became very friendly with Rose, today we still keep in contact by e-mail, part in English, part in Swahili, when she has access to the Internet.
Another facet of my integration with my homestay family was gaining the trust of the little boy, Samwel. He was in lower school and was unable to read or write in Swahili or English. He was very shy at first and mostly sat watching me with intent eyes. My fragmented attempts at Swahili caused minimal interactions, yet seemed to make him more comfortable with my presence. With the translation help of Rose, I taught him counting games and by the end of our first game he was sitting on my lap with a smile from ear to ear. He spent the rest of the weekend following my every move, and I couldn’t have been happier to have him around.
Whether it be describing and acting out that same word ten different ways, or attempting to speak Swahili to Samwel, I learned to be persistent and resourceful. While one effort of communication might fail the process was all about creatively framing the next try. I learned quickly that coming out of my comfort zone, by attempting to sing or by making myself look silly, made Samwel laugh and be more trusting of me. These lessons of both persistence and resourcefulness are valuable skills that I will undoubtedly carry with me through my travels the rest of my life. These tools will be especially beneficial when integrating myself into my new community as part of the Peace Corps.

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