One month out!

Hola y bienvenido to my Peace Corps blog! My name is Sierra, and I will be serving as an Environmental Health Extensionist in Panama, training July-September 2016 and serving September 2016-September 2018. If you're reading this you most likely know me personally, but for those who might have stumbled upon this blog or who are considering applying to the Peace Corps and want to learn more about it, I am very glad you're here. Feel free to send me a message at any time - see the Contact Me tab. So, a little background on how I got to where I am today...since sophomore year of college when I began the environmental engineering curriculum I always assumed that I would get a job as an entry-level engineer right after graduation. But junior year, after returning from my second spring break service trip I started thinking about taking a year off to do volunteer work instead. I went back and forth countless times, afraid of the two-year commitment of the Peace Corps, not seeing any projects on the PC website I was really excited about, going to career fairs and having several full-time job interviews with no success. Winter break I went on the website again and found this program in Panama (I had a strong preference for a Latin American country) that was specifically looking for civil & environmental engineers to work on water & sanitation projects. I knew instantly that this was exactly what I wanted and I completed my whole application in a few days and sent it in at approximately 11:58 pm on New Year's Eve to make the January 1st application deadline :) I learned that I was being considered for the program mid-January, got an interview request at the end of January, had my interview February 4th, received my invitation Feb 8th, and had to make a final decision by Feb 15th at the very latest! The whole thing was crazy fast - almost exactly six months from application submission to departure date. The Peace Corps has really streamlined their process, from what I've read it used to take up to several years from applying to actually get your assignment. Luckily, it doesn't leave me much time to change my mind! I had a very fun, busy, and fulfilling last semester of undergrad, and I graduated from the University of Michigan on April 30th. Since then, I have been doing a LOT of relaxing, reading, working part time, studying for the FE exam at the end of this month, spending time with friends, and I visited my family in Wisconsin for a weekend. Next week, I'm going on a road trip to Tennessee with three of my best friends from Racine, which I'm very excited for. I'm also realizing that now is probably a good time to take care of all of the business I need to get done before leaving the country for over two years... and of course continue to spend as much time with friends and family as possible!