My crazy application timeline

When I applied to the Peace Corps, I had heard the application process was long and tedious. I had expected this but had no idea how difficult it would really be. It lasted almost a full year and included a successfully appealed medical rejection. In a way, I'm kind of glad I went through it because I was sure that it was something I REALLY wanted; i wouldn't have gone through with all of this and fought so hard for something I was only kind of interested in. My actual Peace Corps service will require lots of patience and flexibility, and nothing has taught me more of those qualities than the application process.

I have a stubborn streak a mile long, and when I want something, I make it happen. I wanted to go to K College, wanted to go to Senegal, I made it happen. I wanted to get to know the cute new guy at work, now he's my boyfriend. After being in Senegal and meeting volunteers, I KNEW I had to be in the Peace Corps and having it almost not happen made me fight even harder. I hope this helps future volunteers or current applicants; it can be a difficult process, but I believe my service will be much more valuable because of all of this.

Ok, here it is:

Early July 2008 – Started Application

August 22, 2008 – SUBMITTED APPLICATION AND HEALTH STATUS REVIEW

August 25, 2008 – Received call from recruiter; said I qualify for 2 of the sectors I requested and I would likely be placed in French West Africa with my language skills. She said that the Peace Corps is expecting a higher volume of applicants for 2009 and there were going to be fewer spots and therefore more difficult to receive an invitation. Therefore, she is sending me info on the agriculture sector and that I should seek agriculture experience in order to increase my chances for being invited to the Peace Corps. She also said a recommendation from a volunteer supervisor was a good idea to show that I have experience in volunteer work; people in Washington, D.C. will be reading my Peace Corps file and need to know this.

August 28, 2008 – Received fingerprinting charts, national security background check, skills addendum, and info on programs I qualify for in the mail

September 5, 2008 – sent in finger print charts, national security background check, and the skills addendum

September 11, 2008 – Recruiter sent me an email; says she has received my additional info and is still waiting on references and transcripts. She says I can go ahead and set up an interview

September 15, 2008 – Set up on campus interview for September 30, 2008 at 11 a.m.

September 30 – Interview on campus with recruiter; she does not nominate me right away, as not all references have come in and she wants to nominate me for a TEFL program, but says I need more experience first. However, she says if a health extension program opens up, I can be nominated for it

November 25, 2008 – I find out that I am nominated for Health Extension in Sub Saharan Africa in July 2009; the email was dated November 20; I need to check my yahoo mail more often. In any case, nomination!!! YAY!!!

November 26, 2008 – Receive my medical packet

January 28, 2009 – Sent in Medical packet overnight

January 29, 2009 – forgot to include the bitewings x-rays; send them in, not overnight, just regular mail

February 4, 2009 – Receive email that Peace Corps has received my medical packet

February 6 2009 – My dental packet gets sent back to me, saying its incomplete because the bitewings are not included (even though I told my screening assistant that they would be coming later); send it back and tell the dental person to wait for the bitewings

February 19 – I am told that the forms from my therapist finally arrived; now they can start the medical clearance

(Sometime in this period – find out bitewings have still not arrived; request another copy from the dentist and send them to the Peace Corps)

March 7 – Dental packet gets sent back to me again because I need to have interproximal cavities filled

March 26 – get cavities filled; ouch!

March 27 – send in dental packet AGAIN

April 2 – DENTALLY CLEARED (via email)

April 7 – receive notification of dental clearance in the mail (the letter is dated April 3)

April 23, 2009 – receive email notification (at 5:15 a.m.) that my toolkit was updated; it says this: “All nominees have a medical hold while they are under review. No further action from you is required, unless the Office of Medical Services contacts you to request additional information.” I also just noticed at the top it said this: “Peace Corps sent you an important letter regarding the status of your application on April 22, 2009. Please review the contents of the letter and contact the Peace Corps if you have questions” NERVOUS NERVOUS NERVOUS!!! (this is exactly 9 weeks after they had acquired all of the forms)

April 25, 2009 – get a letter in the mail saying I am not medically qualified; there is no information on how to appeal the decision, only on how to review the decision, and I can’t call the office till Monday because they are closed on Saturday and Sunday. I was also dumped a couple days earlier so this is quite possibly the worst 48 hours of my life.

May 15, 2009 – fax in appeal letters from myself, my doctor, and my former therapist

May 18 – Fax in appeal letters again; screening nurse told me that the fax came out with marks on it and missing words; I find a different fax machine (Kinko’s) and do it over again; I called the next day to make sure everything was set and she said it was.

May 29 – Call my screening nurse to see what’s up with my appeal. She said that my MNQ got lifted! Apparently it never even went to the board, some guy in charge of mental health screening looked at it and thought I was ok. So, according to her, they need to finish looking at my medical forms (should happen in the next couple weeks) and then they can finish medically clearing me and then find a program for me. I’m more than likely going to miss my original nomination but I’m still being considered! Yay!

June 5, 2009 – Get a call from my screening nurse; I have to fill out more paperwork – a form about my history of migraines and also a glucose and lipid test because I have a BMI over 30 (I don't consider myself "overweight;" I'm 4'11 and NOT 90 lbs, so yes, I have a high BMI) She said she’s sending it to me.

June 6, 2009 – toolkit updates at 5:15, saying: “HOLD. All nominees have a medical hold while they are under review. No further action from you is required, unless the Office of Medical Services contacts you to request additional information.”

So just waiting for the forms to come to my house so I can get them filled out ASAP and then back in; my goal is to have all forms in by the end of June

June 17, 2009 – Fax extra tests and forms to my screening nurse; now waiting for final medical clearance (I think…)

June 18, 2009 – Toolkit Update: Hold removed and it says: “Your file is currently under consideration. Please review the information on this page to determine whether Peace Corps is awaiting any information from you”

June 30, 2009 – missed a call from my screening nurse, argh! Said that it appeared I had everything and to call her tomorrow for an update

July 1 – get a hold of my screening nurse and she said she is going to medically clear me; still waiting for the official stuff though (toolkit update, letter in the mail) and then I can maybe actually feel excited

July 9, 2009 – now I know why I was waiting to be excited; because nothing actually happened yet and looks like I have to wait even more to be medically cleared. The screening nurse informed me that I needed to fill out more forms and she’s flagging my file.

July 16 – Get even more forms are filled out and go to Matt’s house afterward and use his fax machine so I don’t have to pay over a dollar a page at Kinko’s

July 17, 2009 – Toolkit Update, with this under medical: Complete. A decision has been reached regarding your medical review. Please look for a letter in the mail; this is usually the medical clearance message, so YAY!, but I probably won’t know officially until Saturday or Monday when the letter arrives

July 20, 2009 – receive an email from the placement office; APO is requested final transcripts and an updated volunteer work resume; got my unofficial transcripts from the registrar (they don’t need official ones) and started putting together the resume

July 21, 2009 – Faxed in transcript and updated resume; got an email from an Africa placement intern confirming that the transcript had been received; she did not say that the resume had been received, so I responded to her asking if it had been received

July 22, 2009 – Received response email from placement intern; resume did get there as well

July 24, 2009 – Called screening nurse because I still had not gotten letter saying I was medically cleared. Turns out my paperwork that I had faxed in got lost in the bureaucratic shuffle and she had never seen it. Called me back to tell me she found it and she was passing it on to the medical director or something; they would know by noon. Argh.

July 24, 2009 – Screening nurse calls a little before noon and informs me that I’m all set and medically qualified; there is a letter in the mail indicating this. FINALLY

July 27, 2009 – Receive letter in mail that says I am “medically qualified for service where [my] mental health condition can be accommodated.” Happy I am MEDICALLY CLEARED AFTER FIVE MONTHS, but I was never told anything about a medical accommodation, so I’m kind of nervous.

July 29, 2009 – Receive email from APO saying she hadn’t received resume yet, even though I faxed it with the resume and the intern said it had arrived (I had sent her an email either yesterday or in the morning). I re-faxed it

July 30, 2009 – email APO and ask if she got the resume, she said she did. I received a call from a placement officer but I missed it!!! Argh! I tried calling her back but just left a message.

July 31, 2009 – called back my PO while I was on a break at work. She asked me a couple questions, such as what I’ve been doing since I applied to prepare myself. I told her the long process and original rejection has really allowed me to think about how badly I want to do this, I’ve been doing some volunteer work, and I’ve done lots of research on the Peace Corps. She also said getting a rejection overturned was rare, so she congratulated me. She also asked what challenges I think I might face and how my parents felt about me joining. She said she thought I was qualified for service and found a program that could accommodate me in francophone Africa leaving early October to do health education. However, another PO is in charge of the program so she’s passing my file onto her (the new PO might call me to ask me more questions or just might send out the invite), but she said I should have my invite in a week or two. YAYYY!!! If I’ve done my research thoroughly (and I think I have, haha) I’m guessing it will be either Niger or Burkina Faso, but I’m leaning towards Burkina because research also tells me that Niger in October is for agfo. However, anything is possible and I’ll be thrilled with anything! I never thought this point would actually come! Yayyy!!!

August 2, 2009 – Toolkit update; checkmark next to place; there are no holds on my account! Yay!

August 4, 2009 – Toolkit update; Congratulations! You’ve been invited to become a Peace Corps volunteer! My invite is in the mail!

August 10, 2009 – RECEIVE INVITE IN THE MAIL!!: “Congratulations! It is with great pleasure that we invite you to begin training in Niger for Peace Corps service!” YAYYY!!!

August 13, 2009 – Call to accept invite!!

August 14, 2009 – Toolkit update: Congratulations! You have accepted your invitation to serve in Niger. You will soon be receiving additional information from your country desk, the travel office, and the office of staging about preparing for service.

August 17, 2009 – send in visa and passport applications

August 18, 2009 – I am paranoid about sending my passport in the mail and call FedEx to check on the delivery; it was delivered and reached the intended destination!

August 21, 2009 – Send in aspiration statement and resume

August 22, 2009 – and it’s been a year since I applied!