Disclaimer

DISCLAIMER

This blog is all words of my own and does not represent the thoughts, views, or opinions of the United States Peace Corps or the United States Government.

My Aspiration Statement

When a PCV accepts their invitation to the Peace Corps, they must write an aspiration statement on their goals and what they hope to gain.  This is mine.



A: The professional attributes that you plan to use, and what aspirations you hope to fulfill, during your Peace Corps service.

            I know that during my time as a Peace Corps Volunteer one important thing to remember while serving will be professionalism, and that remembering this while serving will help me reach goals.  While serving in the Kingdom of Swaziland I will adhere to the standards and policies of the country.  Respecting the country's policies as well as the policies of the school I am working with will help establish me as a professional, which will help with my engagement and interactions with my community.  By respecting these things I hope to in return gain the respect of those around me.

            Something I have learned that will help my professionalism during my service is remembering to be self aware as well as socially aware.  Being socially aware relates to being aware of others' emotions, experiences, and points of view, enabling me to create strong relationships with those around me.  Looking at these things will help establish me as a profession, which will then help in the success of the goals of my assignment.  Remembering to be self aware is also important, and this includes understanding my own emotions, strengths, limitations, actions, and reactions to things.  By keeping in check with myself about these things I will be able to grow safely and healthily, greatly expanding what I will be available to learn and teach.

            Being socially and self aware will also help me reach my goals as a Peace Corps Volunteer.  One of my largest goals is to integrate myself into the community.  I hope to establish relationships of trust and partnership.  Creating these types of relationships will aid in collaborating visions for the community, which will lead closer to the success of the visions. By enveloping myself as a member of the community I will be able to expand lessons for the prevention of AIDS/HIV.  I hope to come up with creative projects and lessons to help in teaching.  Not only do I want to share these with the younger population, but I hope by becoming an active member of the community I will be able to share with the parents and the older generation as well, which will help in encouraging the lessons taught at school or in youth groups/activities.  

B: Your strategies for working effectively with host country partners to meet expressed needs.

            Working with my host country partners will be imperative to the success of my assignment.  My host partners' input will allow goals to be catered to the specific needs of where I am working.  I took what was called a leadership course last year and I believe that some of the lessons this course taught about being an inclusive leader will help me work with my counterpart.  In order to improve the relationship with my counterpart I will need to be willing to be vulnerable, enabling me to take risks.  Even though I will already be taken out of what is seen as my comfort zone, accepting a vulnerability will let my counterpart and I work through questions that are seen as "hard," allowing us to delve deeper into things and therefore working out better solutions, finding what will be most useful and able to be sustained.

            Other strategies I will use to better work with my counterparts will be cultural self-awareness, active listening, and patience.  Being culturally self-aware will help me work with my counterparts because it calls for me to be aware of how my cultural identity impacts my perspective.  My perspective on things will be very different then those of my counterparts, and by being aware of this I can move away from being stuck in one certain line of thought.  Being aware of this reminds me to try to look at things from a different perspective, and my counterpart will be one of the most important people to help me do this.  Active listening will also help me do this.  Active listening means listening with a desire to understand rather than just listening to prepare a response.  This is a great tool to use because it closes a cap on cultural lenses we tend to find ourselves using when speaking with someone who differs from ourselves.  Using this technique will also help create respect between myself and my counterparts.   

            Growing up in the United States a "go,go,go" attitude is instilled into people at a young age.  Because of this, I think patience will also be a great asset to the success of my assignment.  I will need to have patience with myself and with others.  Sometimes getting things done can take a long time, but by having patience I will encourage my counterparts and myself to not give up hope if a project seems to be taking longer than anticipated.  Patience is also important because of the language barrier that will be encountered at first.  I think the most important reason why patience will be a good thing to use with my counterparts and my community is because building strong relationships does not happen in a night, and I will have to be patient to build trust which will lead to stronger relationships of working together.  

C:  Your strategies for adapting to a new culture with respect to your own cultural background.

          I am excited to go to a new country with a culture I have never experienced before.  I think the strategy that will be most useful to me is one that I have used often in the past, embracing things as they come along rather than assuming about them before I go.  This strategy has helped me get through many transitions in my life, including transferring to completely new schools multiple times as well as studying abroad in Granada, Spain for four months.  It is also a strategy that excites me and that I am very comfortable with.  I let go of assumptions and expectations of what I do not know, and instead go into a new space with a completely open mind to what might happen.  I have found this to work very well because inhibitions are let go of, offering the best kind of experience that can be achieved.   

            I will respect my own background by staying aware of it as well as staying true to what I believe.  Staying aware of my background will enable me to expand my perspective on things by remembering that people do not share the same background as I do.  By staying true to what I believe I will be able to do my job with integrity, and keeping my integrity will improve the way I work and projects that are done.   

            While adapting to a new culture another thing I believe is important to remember is that even if things are very different and seem uncomfortable at first, comfort levels will raise with time.  It is important to remember that even if things are tough at first, the rewarding experience will be sticking it out and learning from it, rather than running from it.  I think it will be useful while serving to embrace differences, using them to my advantage and viewing them as assets.  Different perspectives will aid in the success of my assignment.

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 improve strategies on counseling.  Although I do have some skills in this area, I think strengthening them will greatly improve the work I can do in Swaziland.  I believe that counseling will be important to help people deal with the loss that the AIDS/HIV pandemic has caused, as well as then counseling on the prevention on these diseases.  Improving my skills in this area will aid in my teaching and guidance of persons of all ages and genders.

            Upon being invited to serve in the Kingdom of Swaziland I have heard about many trials volunteers have encountered due to the emotional taxation the AIDS pandemic has taken, from my assignment description and from others who knew volunteers placed in similar situations.  One thing I hope to learn during pre-service training is how to take the potential surrounding devastation and turn it into something that can be useful to my purpose there.  The devastation there will have a personal effect on us volunteers, and rather than allowing the pain we feel and see around us have a detrimental effect on the work we are doing, I hope to gain knowledge of a way to change it from a negative to a positive to improve sharing our message and education.   

e:  How you think Peace Corps service will influence your personal and professional aspirations after your service ends.

            I think that Peace Corps will greatly impact my personal and professional aspirations at the end of my service by guiding me to a more specific area of study for graduate school and my career.  After graduating with my degree in English, I have discovered that I greatly want to expand my areas of expertise.  I want my studies to move on to a more globally conscious humanitarian path, and find a career that greatly involves serving others, which is why I am so excited to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer because I know I will be fulfilling and learning about these things.  I know that I will learn a new way of living and expand my beliefs in this area while serving, which will help me choose a course of study.

            By living in what will seem to me a new world, I am excited to grow personally and professionally, which will undoubtedly happen.  Recently I have been trying to discover what direction my life will take me next, and what I wish to accomplish with my time, and I am grateful for the experience that Swaziland will give me in figuring out what my aspirations, both professionally and personally, truly are.  I am excited for the opportunity ahead of me to experience a new culture and to learn from it, on a personal level with the Kingdom of Swaziland as well as looking at in on a global scale.