What is the best agriculture based business?

Peace Corps Placement Based On Skill?

• Hi there! I was thinking about applying for the peace corps, and I was wondering based on my qualifications where that might have me placed. I studied French for 6 Years, German for 5 and know the Russian Alphabet, along with minimal Spanish (Numbers, Greetings, Travel Phrases). I will be graduating this year with a Bachelors Degree in Global Studies which is a heavy emphasis on history and culture. I used to tutor English as an exchange student in Germany of which I lived there for one year, and have also done cultural exchanges to France and the UK. I have little to no experience in health, agriculture or business so I'm pretty positive that Education and Youth & Community will be my two main volunteering programs. Is there a specific region or country from past individuals who went abroad with the Peace Corps who would be able to give me any insight as to where I might be placed? I'm just curious! I have a preference for SE Asia (Thailand!) but I understand and accept that I could be placed anywhere. Thanks!

• Answer:

  Yes, you can be placed anywhere. You can state a preference for a region but nothing's guaranteed. You don't state what you would WANT to do. This is a big factor. Do you *want* to teach English? Do health education? Whatever? That matters. PC really does want to accommodate you. It doesn't usually take much to qualify for a certain segment. Example: I had Red Cross certification and qualified for as a health volunteer. It's not like you need water sanitation degree with a minor in international studies to work in agriculture. I worked in youth development. I had ZERO experience with kids. My nomination was community service (and youth development can fall under that) because I had 20 years of work experience and basically was interested in that. I also wanted to work with kids. I told my recuiter this. My recuiter nominated me and suggested I continue to volunteer. I tutored English - to adults. And then I got my YD invite. Still with ZERO experience. So really, it's your level of interest, your overall skills and your communication with your recruiter that makes your nomination. Talk to your recruiter about what you'd like to do and that person will help you. They want you to be a happy volunteer. That said, the "predictions" are big time for PCV applicants. To try to figure out where you might be placed, check out first the PC page itself, which lists (sometimes in vague terms) the sectors each country has. IT, for example, is not in all countries. The PC Wiki has all kinds of "calculators" to try to figure out service. I'd suggest exploring that site, which is run by some awesome RPCVs. You can tell which sectors leave for what countries when (so, for example, if you hoped to work in YD in Morocco, you could tell your recruiter you wanted to depart in Septemer or so, because that's when that program leaves) and you can figure out the overall percentage of volunteers who serve in, say, Sub Saharan Africa's agricultural programs. The Yahoo discussion group has a lot of information, too, and you can followup on questions. Here you just kind of throw it out and hope someone who knows can answer. As far as your language skills that you have: French might help in placement, but the rest isn't enough to worry about. I also knew Cyrillic and some German and wound up in Morocco.