Here We Go Again

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Welp. Here we are again. I'm back in the blogging seat and I am ready to provide an update.

Many of you may recall my post from May 1, 2014 stating that I was ready to serve. I had been nominated to Peace Corps service, and had been placed for service in Indonesia. Ultimately, I ended up deferring that nomination in order to better stabilize my personal and professional situations in preparation for such a commitment. Well, at the end of July of this year, I returned to the States in exactly just such a position.

Currently, I am a Master's candidate at American University where I'm studying International Training & Education (heretofore to be referred to as "ITEP"). Part of my specific degree program includes a massive field research component. Of the 27 in my MA cohort, only 3 of us are doing the fieldwork track. The fieldwork takes place in the form of Peace Corps service - meaning 2 years added to my traditional 2-year MA program. Because of my previous experience with the Peace Corps application process, I went in to this program with a pretty solid understanding of how and what I wanted to do with all of this. My 2014 year filled with travel to Southeast Asia informed me that I really, really wanted to return to that region; And, my experience with Disney English has instilled in me quite the little fire for teacher-training program design. My placement will embody both of these elements together:

I've been nominated to serve in the English Teacher Training program in Cambodia beginning July 22, 2016.

Now... let's get real for a second here. This is Peace Corps service that we're talking about. So, I will be working hard to set my own expectations on what this actually means as the time ticks closer. While my job description projects glorious imagery of me professing best practices for skilled teachers in a community college setting... I'm juxtaposing that with images of myself taking a cold bucket shower in order to rally the courage to raise awareness and interest in said teacher training programming in my community... which, to me, screams of having to do things like *shudder* talk to people I don't know. So, we shall see what the reality of all of this turns out to be when the actual time comes.

For now, I'm up to my eyeballs in graduate school coursework, and that's where I'm keeping my focus until I'm forced to do otherwise. I am excited to be taking massive steps in the direction of a field that I didn't even know existed until about 6 months ago, and yet fits so incredibly well with the path that I've been walking for some time.

I look forward to re-establishing contact with all of you in the coming months. As time draws nearer, I'll learn more and more about the realities of my upcoming service and will be sure to share those revelations with you.

Let's do this!

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Photos

Let's Do This!
This calls for a superhero pose.

This is how we class.
ITEP - Keeping it classy.

Global Education Forum
Our program played host to an international panel... and we looked real good doing it.