- January 2011 - start online application
- March 2011 - initial application completed, letters of recommendation sent
- April 14, 2011 - initial interview with the UC Davis Peace Corps representative
- Late April, 2011 - send in transcripts, background check, and fingerprint forms
- May 2011 - I receive my "nomination" to be an Education Volunteer in Subsaharan Africa, with a handwritten note that tells me I will be required to learn the local sign language (in addition to the local spoken language!)
- Summer 2011 - I procrastinate getting all my medical, dental, and optometric paperwork done, with the result that I go back to the doctor in Davis about 5 times getting additional papers signed and further vaccinations.
- July 29, 2011 - I get an email from the Peace Corps placement office letting me know that because of budget cuts, PC is sending fewer volunteers in 2011 than initially intended, and that if I am still interested, I will likely leave in early 2012. They give me a deadline of a week to let them know if I still wish to continue with this process; otherwise, if they receive no response, they will throw out my application.
- Um, what? I'm definitely still doing this. Way to be melodramatic, Placement Office.
- August 2011 - I send in an updated resume and final transcript. Because UCD is a quarter school, my official final transcript isn't available until October, so I have to remember to do that in the future.
- October 2011 - I finally finish clearing up the medical paperwork, and officially gain medical clearance for service!
- November 2011 - I have a phone conversation with my Placement and Assessment Officer, basically another interview, to help her determine where to place me. She follows up a few weeks later asking about my interest in being an "Early Generation Volunteer" - most likely one of the first Peace Corps Volunteers to enter a country - and I take about a week of thinking to decide that I would probably be better off not being an EGV.
- December 13, 2011 - I receive an email update that my application status has been changed to "Invitee". I spend the next week freaking out and frantically checking the mail, before . . .
- December 17, 2011 - My mom finds my invitation packet on the front step as my father and I drive off to a Peace Corps Information Session. She opens and reads it aloud - Malawi! Biology! Secondary School! JUNE - not quite early 2012! I quickly start googling Malawi on my phone, trying to find out more about it than the fact that Madonna adopted a baby there.
- December 26, 2011 - I officially ACCEPT my invitation! I follow up by sending another updated resume and aspiration statement to the PC Malawi Country Desk.
And now for the exciting part . . .
- June 18, 2012 - I fly to Philadelphia for "Staging" - basically a day of orientation with the Malawian education volunteers in my group.
- June 20, 2012 - Fly from JFK to South Africa to Malawi!
- June 20, 2012-August 29, 2012 - Pre-Service Training
- August 30, 2012-August 29, 2014 - my very own Peace Corps Service!
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