ESL Training and the Peace Corps

I went to ESL training last night. For those of you that don't know, I have been seriously thinking about joining the Peace Corps for a little over a year now. I decided last year, that I wanted part of my "road" to the corps to be ESL (English as a second language) tutoring. A lot of the places that I am looking into offer ESL as a part of the volunteering. I really wanted to start getting experience last semester, but it never seemed to fit in with my schedule.

I am really lucky this semester. Loyola has a really good program. The program is about twelve years old and is run by a Loyola professor. There are several English grad students that oversee the program. The tutors themselves are made up of Loyola students and others in the community. The location is also really convenient. The Literacy Center is right on the edge of campus.

I was a little nervous at first, but training last night went really well. We watched a mock-tutor session. We practiced making lesson plans. We also took a tour of the center and went over all of the tools at our disposal. I will most likely be tutoring for about three hours every Tuesday, and am already really excited about it.

I am also, already starting to get really excited about the Peace Corps. This past week, I started filling out my application. I can't believe that it is really happening (although it will be about 9-12 months before I get an official invite). I feel like it is going to be a long process, but I am going to try and stick with it and get all of the paperwork finished as soon as possible. As the process continues, I will let you all know how it is going.