By design, Peace Corps takes you outside your comfort zone. If you were placed in a country where you felt completely at ease, it would defeat the purpose of Peace Corps-its designed to shake you up a bit. Socially, linguistically, culturally-everything is dramatically different.
Well maybe not everything, one area where I haven't really left my comfort zone is my professional life. Part of this is also by Peace Corps design-people with 'industry' expertise are generally placed in that specific area. 'Have teaching experience?' 'Good, we need some teachers.' This is especially the case in the TEFL sector, where the main structure of your week is the school schedule.
With counterparts, I teach numerous classes a week. I work with other teachers in my community to design trainings to help teachers become more effective in the classroom. I meet with teachers across the country sharing techniques they can use in the classroom to increase student participation and comprehension.
Sound repetitive? It is.
Its not to say I don't enjoy my work. I do. I'm passionate about helping teachers (or trainers, or mentors, or whatever term they are being identified as) become better teachers and I have a certain degree of expertise to offer in this field. But, it also is quite safe and very little precariousness is involved.
As I begin to ponder what direction my life will take after Peace Corps (you wouldn't believe some of the dorky thoughts I've had regarding my resume) I've started to think about those lessons I'm looking for in future employment. I've found just as much education in my professional life as I have in my academic life and I'm hoping my next steps will help me along two specific lines.
1) Risk. As I mentioned earlier, I've been able to play extensively within my comfort zone in the Peace Corps. One of my most valuable lessons learned in grad school was to become adept at re-articulating situations in terms of your expertise. While this helps create confidence in new endeavors it also minimizes my experience with risk and taking risks. Don't worry Mom, I'm not looking to engage in 'risky behaviors,' but I'd like to deal with risk enough to know I'm not risk adverse.
2) Entrepreneurship. It's a goal of mine to start my own business. That's about as specific as this goal can get right now; I'll acknowledge, there's definitely room for improvement. I want my next steps in my professional life to prepare me to take action on this goal. I'm not looking to learn specific lessons rather, I want to experience the nature of a small, interconnected company. Past the very surface level sheen of entrepreneurship, what is actually involved in day-to-day running?
No comments:
Post a Comment