Tag Archives: Peace Corps

08.21.08
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A VISTA perk

Not only is VISTA service a great way to serve a year (or two or three) and get an award to help pay for school or repay student loans, it can also give alumni an advantage when applying for federal jobs.

Upon the completion of service, VISTAs receive a year of non-competitive eligibility for federal jobs. What this means is you can apply for federal jobs that are not open to the general public. (NOTE: This benefit only applies to VISTA and Peace Corps.)

This benefit doesn’t guarantee you a federal job, but as long as your qualified and there is an opening, you have a better shot at getting hired than someone who never served.

Here’s some additional info from cns.gov:

To establish your non-competitive status, you will need proof of eligibility. Once you have completed service, log onto the My AmeriCorps portal to print an AmeriCorps*VISTA certification letter. Visit http://my.americorps.gov to register at the My AmeriCorps portal. Click the “My Service Letter” link to create and print your letter. If your letter is incorrect or the portal cannot locate your record, please contact the VISTA Member Support Unit at VISTAMemberSupportUnit@cns.gov.

Submit copies of this statement with your federal job applications. Information on federal positions can be obtained from USAJOBS, the federal government’s one-stop source for federal jobs and employment information. USAJOBS is accessible at http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/.

07.16.08
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Peace Corps and Grad School

The newest episode of the Idealist.org Public Service Careers Podcast features Eileen Conoboy, the director of the Office of University Programs at Peace Corps. Eileen says that its relationships with grad schools is the best-kept secret about Peace Corps.

Did you know that your Peace Corps service can count towards your grad degree? If you participated in the Masters International program, you would apply to both a partner grad school and Peace Corps at the same time, study for a year, and then take off for Peace Corps service for 27 months or so. At the end of Peace Corps service you may have some loose ends to tie up at school, and then you’d get your degree. Your degree program would be aligned with your Peace Corps service too, so that you’d be learning theories and practices useful to your eventual Peace Corps service while in school. PCMI does take into account your financial needs as well. Partner schools must offer some kind of financial benefit, including credit for foreign language mastery, or tuition benefits.

If you’ve already done Peace Corps, Fellows USA partner schools offer you financial benefits for grad school as well, along with an array of service-oriented programs to choose from. You don’t have to be a recently minted Returned Volunteer, either. Eligibility is life-long.

To learn more, go to Peace Corps’s grad school web pages.

Also check out Idealist.org’s new Public Service Graduate Education Resource Center. It’s still in the soft launch phase, but there are good articles there to help guide your search.