Aspirations Statement

After I received my placement to Peru for Small Business Development/Promotion, the Peace Corps requested for me to update my resume and to write an aspiration statement to send off to the people that will be training me in Peru. This was meant to help them get a better idea of me as an individual, and to somewhat prepare them for my training needs. For those of who are curious about what this aspiration statement consists of, here is the Peace Corps guidelines to my statement, and my response:

Your aspirations statement should describe your expectations about your Peace Corps service and assigned project, your strategies for adapting to a new culture, and how your expect your service to further your personal and professional goals.
Now that you have read your Volunteer Assignment Description (VAD), please tell us about:

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

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

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

D: The skills and knowledge you hope to gain during pre-service training to best serve your future community and project.

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

A: I know how to present myself professionally, to be dressed appropriately, to be attentive, awake, to speak clearly, and avoid using slang. To not slouch, to not be negative, or complain. To shake hands and greet people warmly, to say please, thank you, and mucho gusto. Another attribute I possess and continue to strengthen is my patience. Others will not see me “sigh”, or feel rushed by my presence. I will live by the rule that, “my time is their time”, and I will take however much time it takes for me to understand, but for those working with me to understand. I take pride in my ability to take complex concepts and explain them in the simplest ways. I will take organizational and group communication terms and explain them to the people I am working with by using examples that they can relate to. During my professional customer service and sales experience I learned that you cannot use “cookie-cutter” techniques to talk to people, or simple role-play. No two people are the same, you must listen to the individual and ask open-ended questions, and understanding them can only be so effective unless they believe that you understand them. Lastly I will always remind myself that I have much more to learn. I will use the resources available to me and continue to self-educate myself throughout my entire service. No matter how experienced I think I am, what I know is limited to my own experience so I must continue to learn from others and challenge myself to expand my knowledge.
I aspire to live a life of self-sacrifice, to take this opportunity to help other people and to sacrifice myself for the good of the global community while gaining valuable personal cross-cultural experience that will further my ability to do so. I aspire to become fluent in Spanish to increase the diversity of people I am able to help and make meaningful relationships with. I aspire to successfully complete as many projects as possible and to extend myself to my limits. I aspire myself not to visit, but to live the culture. To understand each culture and subculture, but still see each person for the individual that they are.

B: Being an active listener will be one of my main strategies. I need to make sure I am aware of the purpose, motivation, and abilities of all the individual parts involved in an organizational process. The best way of doing that is having open dialogue with them, and listening to what those parts tell you. When working together as a group or forming organizations, conflict is a natural part of the organizing process. It is not about if conflict happens, but how conflict is dealt with. I will do my best to help those that I work with understand this and to use conflict as a way of fostering great ideas and to bring out into the open, questions and concerns they may have. I will recognize my host country partners as experienced professionals that are knowledgeable about Peru, and whom I should look to for advice. I will build quality relationships with my host country partners by having open and honest dialogue, and working as hard as I can for them while maintaining the highest quality of work.

C: I will try not to over think what things are going to be like when I get to Peru. I know whatever conclusions I may come to prior to service will likely not be what I experience when I get there. Keeping an open mind and being extremely observant will be the key to my cultural adaptation. Misinterpretation could be a factor that affects the dynamics of my social interactions, and I will need to avoid an American perspective when interpreting certain situations. Due to the wide variety of cultures that I have had friends derive from, I have been able to find consistencies and differences of how to carry myself around different cultures, and how to present a demeanor that shows respect, compassion, and a genuine desire to understand another’s culture. Learning the language will be an ongoing process for me, I will need to use non-verbal communication as much as possible. I will let my work ethic show how motivated, focused, and capable I am. I will let my smile and the glimmer in my eye show the compassion and love I have for people. I will crouch down when speaking with children, and use eye contact when talking with people to show my attentiveness. My body language will show approachability and openness to others, my head nods will show that I am listening. My energy will show my enthusiasm and love I have for life and work.

D: When I leave pre-service training I expect to have a solid base of Spanish where I will be able to continue to self-educate myself and progress effectively in my use of Spanish, and to have learned new skills and strategies in my verbal and non-verbal communication. I hope to gain knowledge about the cultural norms, values, and beliefs of the cultures I will be interacting with during my service so I will be aware of how I am presenting myself and how I am perceived. I hope to be aware of the Peace Corps expectations of me and what I can do to meet and exceed them, and to understand the evaluation process and what areas will be highlighted during the process. I hope to gain more knowledge about the people and culture I will be working with, and to learn ways and tips to progress that knowledge during my service. It will be important to me to learn during pre-service training how to successfully integrate into the host family’s home and to convey my respect and appreciation for them letting me into their lives’. I hope to be fully aware of all the resources available to me in completing my assignment.

E: I am going into the Peace Corps with an open-mind and an open future. Although there are many options and things I feel I would enjoy for a career, I am not making a decision until I finish my Peace Corps experience. I plan on taking this experience day by day and focusing on what is in front of me, and I believe that my work in the Peace Corps will eventually give me a clearer picture of my future. I believe that being able to help people for a living is an achievement in itself, and I am thankful for the opportunity I have been given to do so in the Peace Corps. I will continue to reach higher for my dreams and goals in life beyond my service, but I do not want to lose sight of what an amazing experience this will be.