ASPIRATION
STATEMENT
Patricia
N. Dalinis
Ukraine
September
17, 2012
A: The professional attributes that you plan to use, and what aspirations you hope to accomplish during your Peace Corps service:
I intend to approach my Peace Corps service with flexibility, excitement, creativity, and the understanding that I most likely have no idea what I’m getting myself into – and I mean that in the best way possible. My most essential professional attribute is the ability to learn as I go, to discover new methods of understanding by actively and consciously engaging myself. I do so openly and without judgment. To apply this to my service in Ukraine, I must listen to my students. I must work with them, allowing them to teach me as I in turn teach them. My time in Ukraine will be molded by the opportunities I’ve had here in Chicago. Through tutoring high school level ESL students, I’ve learned patience. I’ve learned to acknowledge what the student truly needs to learn without solely inflicting a pre-determined lesson plan on them. My interpersonal communication skills will be necessary in that respect. What’s great is that I was able to tutor the students on a wide variety of subjects, from History to English to Consumer education and more. This not only allowed the students to practice their English, but furthered their study in other subjects as well. As a teacher’s assistant, I’ve become familiar with both following lesson plans and creating them. Within these lessons, there has to be breathing room. Through flexible and creative lessons, the students will become active learners while I continue to maintain and enforce curriculum. I hope to communicate with other teachers, garnering knowledge from them while sharing my skills and findings. If I am able to accomplish the aforementioned goals, I will be successful in part of my aspirations for Peace Corps Service. I also want to work with the community to foster projects and developments that they need. There are about a hundred projects currently coming to mind that I would love to work on with my community, but I cannot know that they would actually be needed or appropriate. I’ll only know once I’m living and acclimating within the community. It’s important to me to help in a way that is genuinely needed, not only in the way I think is needed.
B: Your strategies for working effectively with host country partners to meet expressed needs:
Working effectively with host country partners will be integral to my Peace Corps service. By working closely together, we will foster a bond of cross-cultural understanding and respect. There are a few ways I intend to go about doing this. First, I will listen carefully to my partners when they tell me what the community needs. I will ask pertinent questions to better comprehend the issues at hand. I will be mindful of local norms, taking the time to adopt them as my own. I will present myself in the best way possible, always taking great care to portray a positive image of my home. I will also ask that people remain patient with me while I learn about the community, while I begin projects and while I further my language skills. I will welcome suggestions and seek out advice. By being personable, friendly, open and optimistic I will try hard to develop the type of communication that fosters good work between colleagues.
C: Your strategies for adapting to a new culture with respect to our your own cultural background:
The best way to adapt to a new culture is to immerse oneself in that culture. I look forward to discovering first hand all of the things that make Ukraine such a fascinating place. By being curious and flexible, I hope for Ukraine to become a part of my cultural background. Of course, I still intend to maintain who I am by keeping up with activities I enjoy, such as writing, drawing, and reading. Luckily for me, those activities are pretty portable. I hope to share those interests with the people around me as we all learn more about each other. It’s all about an exchange in cultural understanding. I know there may be some aspects of culture that might be uncomfortable for me at first, but it comes down to adjustment and compromise. By remaining open and respectful I will overcome those obstacles to the best of my ability. I’m also pretty excited to experience the religious holidays of the area, as I am of the same religion. Being Orthodox, I look forward to seeing how religion factors into the lives of Ukrainian people. While I’m not very religious myself, it is nonetheless fascinating to look into a culture that I may otherwise have no ties to, but still find that we share something so familiar.
D: The skills and knowledge you hope to gain during pre-service training to best serve your future community project:
I’m looking forward to the information and many skills I will develop through pre-service training. In order to be proactive, I’ve thoroughly read through the handbooks on safety, Ukraine, and being a volunteer in general, as well as worked on the language preparation activities available online. But the hands on training I’ll be receiving the first three months in-country will set the tone for my two years of service. I hope to tackle the language most importantly, whether it is Ukrainian or Russian. It’s vital for me to be able to properly communicate with the people around me as best as I can. I also want to learn about how to keep safe as a volunteer. There are many steps I can take myself to ensure my own safety, and I want to make sure to take responsibility for that with the help of the safety training I’ll receive. I am also very excited to learn about the culture and history of Ukraine, specifically whatever village or town I’ll be assigned to. I want to come into my assignment with a basic understanding of the area and the people, so that I can better observe and assess the needs of the community.
E: How you think Peace Corps service will influence your personal and professional aspirations after your service ends:
The Peace Corps will be the defining experience of my life. It is impossible for it not to be. My views and goals will undoubtedly change drastically. I could guess at what they’ll be when I finish my two year service, but I cannot know for sure what they’ll look like. I imagine they’ll consist of a strong passion for teaching, for learning, for working with youth. I would love to work on developing literacy and creative writing programs to foster a love of literature in youth culture. I hope to have a chance to do so in Ukraine. But I may also find myself working on HIV seminars or summer camps or something unexpected but equally wonderful. These experiences may shift my outlook on what I want to accomplish when I come back to Chicago in 2014. Still, no matter what direction I take, my time with the Peace Corps will help me become a more socially conscious, thoughtful, independent and motivated human being.
