Peace Corps Prep Applied Minor (AM) and Certificate Program
The Peace Corps Prep program at Earlham College will prepare you for international development fieldwork and potential Peace Corps service.
Peace Corps Prep is both an applied minor program at Earlham and a certificate program administered by the Peace Corps. By completing the requirements explained in this guide, you can earn an applied minor designation that will appear on your academic transcript, and earn a certificate of completion from the Peace Corps and additional credentials to include in any application you may submit for a volunteer position or other international development work.
To accomplish this, as you work through your Earlham graduation requirements, you’ll build four core competencies through interrelated coursework, hands-on experience, and professional development support.
These four competencies are the following:
- Training and experience in a work sector
- Foreign language skills
- Intercultural competence
- Professional and leadership development
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Training and experience
Leveraging concrete knowledge and skills is central to on-the-ground international development work. Through Earlham’s Peace Corps Prep program, you will begin to build a professional specialty, which should serve your career well whether or not you become a Peace Corps Volunteer.
There are six sectors in which Peace Corps volunteers serve, one of which you’ll align your studies to as you prepare for a career in service.
Foreign language skills
Working across cultures often entails verbal and nonverbal languages distinct from your own. Building foreign language skills is thus a second key component of the Peace Corps Prep curriculum and can be fulfilled by language classes at various levels.
Peace Corps Prep minimum course requirements align with those needed for graduation, but applicants to the Peace Corps itself should be aware of language requirements for certain placements.
Intercultural competence
Engaging thoughtfully and fluidly across cultures begins with one’s own self-awareness. The goal is for you to build your capacity to shift perspective and behavior around relevant cultural differences.
Professional and leadership development
Peace Corps service and similar international development work opportunities are highly professional and selective. Peace Corps Prep requires three specific activities that will strengthen your candidacy for the Peace Corps (or any other professional endeavor).
What’s it like to serve in the Peace Corps?
Check out this episode of The Listen podcast, where our Peace Corps Prep liaison and Professor of Politics, Jennifer Seely, describes her own experience in the Peace Corps.
Our faculty
Gain firsthand knowledge and instruction from faculty who served in the Peace Corps as you prepare for work in international development.
Have questions?
Learn more about declaring your interest in an applied minor and find answers to other questions you may not even know you have.