Peace Corps Day 2025 is on Saturday, March 1, 2025: PLEASE READ PEACE CORPS?
Saturday, March 1, 2025 is Peace Corps Day 2025. FIRST DAY AS A PEACE CORPS TRAINEE Last night... "Life in the Peace Corps will
The peace corps prefers college graduates with proficiency in a language in addition to excellent English skills.
If you aren't ready for college yet Americorps is a great idea. I was just talking to someone in Americorps the other day. You don't have to go to college first (but you can if you want to). There are several different Americorps programs so you can choose which people you would prefer to help. The salary is minuscule but they'll feed you and give you a place to stay. If you complete a year in the Americorps program that will definitely look good on your application for the Peace Corps after you graduate from college.
If that's what you want to do check out their website.
Questions about the peace corps?
If those are your questions about Peace Corps, there are some serious red flags at issue, but yes, you will more than likely get time off. Everything depends.
Where I was, we had Sundays and Mondays off theoretically, but realistically, I worked eight days a week and others worked one or two. We created our jobs and set our own schedules.
There are, in all honesty, people who treat their entire service like an extended spring break. (Peace Corps obviously frowns on that.)
You do get vacation time to use as you wish, as Ted points out. Travel is always on your own dime, whether it's in your own country of service, if you go back to the US or anywhere else.
As to where I'd recommend, the first I'd say is your own country of service. Anything else would depend on where you were. I traveled, for example, to Portugal and Spain, which was easily accessible from Morocco. For a volunteer serving in Cambodia or Thailand, that's just not practical.
If by "where would u [sic] recommend going?" you meant a country in which to serve, you don't get much of a say so it doesn't matter. You are invited to serve where your skills fit. Peace Corps tries to accommodate preferences, but it's not like you can say, "I want to serve in Georgia or the Ukraine." If those countries do not need your skill set, you have zero chance of being invited.
Likewise, if you said "I only want to serve in Costa Rica," you're not going to be viewed as someone who wants to serve, just as someone who wants to travel, so you're not going to be invited anywhere. The point is to be willing to serve anywhere.
Peace Corps is a federal program. You are transported to your country of service and you are given either the ticket or the funds to return home when you leave. The US taxpayers pay for that. In my country of service, mandatory in-country travel was usually covered as well (for trainings, mandatory work in other sites, etc.). But anything personal is on your own.
A good book to read about Peace Corps is So You Want to Join the Peace Corps - What to Know Before You Go.
I wanna join the peace corps some day?
Here's the exact answer I wrote two days ago for someone else about getting into Peace Corps
1. Get a college degree. In anything. Anything at all. Don't let people try to convince you one is better than another.
2. Get a good track record of community service. That's all Peace Corps is - community service in a community that requires a passport.
3. Stay healthy, obey the law and don't run up debt. You will have to pass medical and legal clearances prior to being invited to serve.
4. Stay flexible and adopt a mantra of patience.
5. Study French, Spanish or Portuguese. This won't guarantee you a placement in a country where one of those languages are spoken, but it will demonstrate to PC that you are able to learn languages.
Adding more for your specific question: You can get involved now by volunteering locally. Libraries, animal shelter, senior centers, hospitals, churches ... all these places LOVE volunteers. With your parents' permission (and funding), you can look at service trips, both domestic and abroad.
If theater is your thing, you would do GREAT in Peace Corps. I know people think it's all about digging ditches, but it's not. It's about educating people WHY they need ditches built and then motivating them to do it themselves. Theater is a wonderful avenue for this, just as it is a great medium to teach about AIDS, women's empowerment or a host of other topics.
A suggestion for you: Dream big, but don't get caught up in the details of the dream. Considering a PhD at age 13 isn't necessary. You will change your mind many, many times before you reach PhD age, so just enjoy it as it comes.
Seriously, even asking for suggestions about a masters now is drastic. You have plenty of time to change your mind and figure it all out later. There is a serious drawback about being locked into a mindset of "this is the plan; I must do this and not divert from the path." That's the joy of being young - it's OK to say, "you know, at one point, I wanted to be a doctor, but now I think I'd prefer being an auto mechanic."
Explore as you go and your interests will grow. You can help people no matter what path you choose. It's not a college-only thing.