Kenya Pre-Departure
In September 2023, I will begin my 27 months of service with Peace Corps Kenya as a secondary science teacher. The steps I had to take to get to this point were extensive. I want to detail the steps to help readers understand my dedication to serving as a Peace Corps volunteer as well as give insight into the pre-departure processes for future hopeful applicants.
I am often asked what got me interested in the Peace Corps. I’ve wanted to participate in a Peace Corps service assignment since I learned about the Peace Corps in high school. I had loosely planned to submit an application at the end of my senior year of college. Unfortunately, I graduated in 2020 during the height of COVID and the Peace Corps had pulled all of their volunteers from their sites for safety.
Thankfully, over the last three years, I have become integrated into STEM education as a high school teacher. I also have my master’s degree in STEM Education. These skills make me feel very prepared to be an effective Peace Corps volunteer during my time of service.
I see the pre-departure process as consisting of the following major sections: application, interview, legal clearance, medical clearance, learning space, and packing. I have detailed my experience with each section below.
Application
When applying for the Peace Corps, you can decide to apply to a specific location and job position, or you can apply to wherever the Peace Corps needs volunteers the most. I chose to apply to a specific location, Kenya, and job position, secondary science teacher, because of previous research I had done on the location and my previous job experience as a secondary science teacher. If you choose to apply to wherever the Peace Corps needs volunteers the most, they will select a position, this includes location and job position, that best matches their needs and your skills/abilities.
Before completing an application, you need to make sure that you have done the necessary background research on your location and job position to be confident in applying because you can only have one active Peace Corps Volunteer application at a time. This was one of the more challenging parts for me because the Peace Corps provides many volunteer opportunities all over the world making it difficult to narrow it down to one application. On the plus side through, the Peace Corps website provides great information about each country and job position to help you make an informed decision. They also have recruiters across the country that can help give you more information and improve your application.
The application requires you to fill out an application and provide health history. The Peace Corps website says the application will take you about an hour. This took me longer because I hadn’t gathered all the necessary documents prior to starting the application. For the application, I needed a resume, motivation for serving statement, three references, details about my foreign language skills, personal information/history/background, work history, legal history, and experience related to the position I was applying for.
The Health History Form also took me a long time to accurately and completely fill out. It is very detailed because if you are selected to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer, the Peace Corps is tasked with taking care of your health needs. Depending on the country of service, some health needs that are easily managed in the United States are not easily managed in the country of service. The Health History Form will be reviewed again later as well during the medical review, so it is important you get it right the first time.
Once you have submitted an application and your Health History Form, your application goes under review. I submitted my application in November, 2022. After submitting an application, you will likely not receive any updates until you are notified if you have been selected for an interview or not. If you do not get selected for an interview, your application process for that position is over, but you can apply for a different position.
Interview
I was notified in February 2023 that I had been selected for an interview, so about three months after I had submitted my application and Health History Form. The interview is completed with a placement officer via videoconference. I was sent a link to select a date and time for the interview within the next week or two. I was provided topics and questions to prepare for ahead of time, and this ended up being extremely helpful.
During the interview, I made sure I was professionally and appropriately dressed and had a clean/undistracting background behind me. I also made sure I could access the link ahead of time so I wasn’t late. I had my notes easily accessible. My notes contained information about the country and job position I was applying for as well as information about the topics and questions I was sent ahead of time. If I am remembering correctly, the interview lasted 2 hours with some time at the end for me to ask questions and share any concerns I had. I prepared questions/concerns in advance and was provided answers to most of them.
After the interview, you have to wait for an invitation to serve or a notification that you are not going to receive an invitation to serve. This could happen a couple weeks or a couple months after your interview. If you are sent an invitation to serve, you have 3 days to respond to your invitation, accepting or not accepting.
Legal Clearance
I received my invitation to serve a couple weeks after my interview. I accepted the invitation within the 3 day time limit. After accepting the invitation to serve came the legal and medical clearance processes which were extensive. There were 3 steps to the legal clearance: background investigation certification form, OFI form, and fingerprint cards. It cost me $20 to complete the fingerprint cards and the Peace Corps does not reimburse for costs incurred during the legal clearance process.
I started the legal clearance process immediately after accepting my invitation to serve. I was informed that I was legally cleared for Peace Corps service in June of 2023. I also have to keep the Peace Corps informed of any changes to my legal history between the time of clearance and the time of my departure.
Medical Clearance
The medical clearance process varies per person, but will be relatively similar for all Peace Corps Volunteers. The process steps take into consideration the volunteer and the place of service. The medical clearance process is overseen by the Office of Medical Services (OMS). I had a portal and tasks with deadlines to complete and a nurse from the OMS managed my clearance. Medical clearance is determine based on physical, dental, and mental health statuses.
For my medical clearance, I had to complete 26 tasks requested by my OMS nurse. These included medical and dental visits, personal statements, questionnaires, acknowledgements, pharmacy records, agreements/compliances, clinical notes, transfer of care forms, health history form review, lab tests/results, x-rays, vaccinations/boosters, eyeglass replacement form, and dentist/doctor follow ups. Each task came with a deadline. If I had a problem reaching the deadline, my OMS nurse was great about communicating with me and setting a new deadline.
Thankfully, costs incurred as a result of the medical clearance process can be reimbursed. I had about $1,000 reimbursed. The reimbursement requires a lot of documentation, so be sure to collect the necessary information at each of your appointments so you do not have to back track. You can be reimbursed for OMS required services such as exams, immunizations, and specialist evaluations. You can not be reimbursed for treatment services, eyeglasses, or things not required by the OMS.
During this process, you have to be extremely organized with deadlines, documents, and receipts. You also have to be willing and able to explain your needs to your doctor, dentist, and other people during this process because most of the forms and information the OMS asks you to submit are things they have never seen before or are rarely asked for. Thankfully, most of the people who helped me found it fun because it was a change from their day-to-day forms and questions.
It is highly advised that you keep your current job up until the end of the medical and legal clearance processes because your departure for service is pending these clearances. Some people do not get medically and/or legally cleared which is heartbreaking because a lot of time and energy goes into pursuing a Peace Corps Volunteer position. If someone does not get medically cleared by the OMS, they will be helped in getting an invitation to a different country that can support their medical needs or their invitation can be withdrawn. There is also a Pre-Service Review Board that you can appeal the decision to. Thankfully, I was medically cleared for Peace Corps Volunteer service in July 2023, about 6 months after I started the process.
Learning Space
A couple months before my departure date I started getting additional tasks to complete while I was working through my medical and legal clearance. One was learning space and the other was the onboarding portal. Learning space has tasks, documents to submit, surveys, courses, resources, recorded conference calls, useful links, and helpful contact information pertaining to your specific departure date, country of service, and job position.
I had to upload an updated resume, updated aspiration statement, updated headshot, safe arrival email addresses questionnaire (who to contact that I have safely arrived in my country since my phone and internet won’t be set up yet), orientation to safety and security course, HIV basics course, core expectations for Peace Corps volunteers course, and trainee overview and homestay questionnaire. Peace Corps Volunteers participate in a homestay during pre-service training which is 10 weeks of living with a Kenyan host family. This questionnaire helps to make the best match possible between the volunteer and the host family.
Starting in June 2023, the Peace Corps Kenya team has had conference calls about once a month. They last about an hour and are well structured. It is helpful that they are recorded and uploaded on this platform so you can go back and listen to it if you need to.
Learning space also houses Global Connections for Peace Corps Volunteer. Global Connections is also sometimes referred to as World Wise Schools. Peace Corps Volunteers are not required to participate, but I am going to try this out. Global Connections enables me, as a Peace Corps Volunteer, to share my experiences with Americans. This typically occurs with American classrooms and organizations as opposed to individuals. The learning space platform has helped increase my excitement for departure and service because of the opportunities I am continuing to learn about, Global Connections being one of them.
Onboarding
I was given access to the onboarding portal a month or two after learning space, right around the time I received my medical and legal clearance. In the onboarding portal, I had to submit more personal information and acknowledge that I had been given information about other details: emergency contacts, suitability and eligibility verification, direct deposit, release of information authorization, certification of Peace Corps service, student loans and deferment, savings bonds, debt payment options, electronic tax document consent, hometown news press release and authorization, equal employment opportunity, global policy handbook, life insurance, Peace Corps drug free service agreement, and Peace Corps service certification. It was all pretty straight forward and took me about an hour to complete because I had to do my own research on a few of the tasks.
Packing
In addition to completing random email tasks for the next couple of months, the final part of my pre-departure is packing for my 27 months in Kenya. There aren’t any required or definitive items, there are just suggested items. I’ve taken the suggested Peace Corps Kenya list, my own knowledge/research, and advice from returned Peace Corps volunteers to help me determine what I am bringing and what I need to purchase before my departure.
I can bring two checked bags (50 pounds each), a carry-on item, and a personal item with me. I know I am going to have to pack strategically, so I am prioritizing items I know I can’t get or will have a hard time getting in Kenya. Overall, I am not as worried about this process because I know I’ll be able to find a version of what I need over there even if it isn’t the same as what I have here.
The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.
