Teach for America Application Process 2015-2016

- Applied for October 31st deadline (the 3rd deadline of the year)
- Invited to Phone Interview the following week 
- Phone Interview (November 10th)

PHONE INTERVIEW:

I really thought I bombed it because I was unprepared for many of the questions I was asked. Although I actually googled what questions might come up and had all my answers written and memorized, only a couple of them were asked and most were about a random experience on my resume. I babbled a lot and my voice became very high pitched because I was caught off-guard. Needless to say, I was very,very disappointed in my phone interview and thought I failed. I also read somewhere that 50% of applicants don’t pass the phone interview so I assumed I was part of that sad 50% who got dropped. BUT to my surprise, I was moved onto the final round!!!!!!! I guess I did answer the questions correctly and my genuine passion in teaching in low-income communities actually showed! 

On a side note: My interview lasted exactly 40 minutes which included me asking a question in the end and her answering it for a couple minutes. My interviewer was also sick so she kept coughing in the middle of my answers which got me a little irritated because I didn’t know if I should stop or keep going. Kept ruining my train of thought..Other applicants commented how they really connected with their interviewer but mine just did her job with no fluff or laughs. Oh well..at least I passed :)

- sent in recommendation requests

- completed online activity 

(Part 1 is timed and Part 2 is untimed but they said applicants typically only spend a couple minutes on each questions. I spent 2 days…lol they were scenario questions and I wanted to make sure I answered them error-free. I know they look at your application holistically so I wanted to make sure this didn’t drag me down.)

- signed up for Final Interview 

- uploaded required documents like official transcripts

- submitted my location and subject area preferences

- read all the pre-work essays, poems, and video

- FINAL INTERVIEW (December 4th)

BACK ON BLOGGER

Yikes! It has been almost 3 years since I've logged into this account..Well to be quite honest, I'm not really good with updating any of my social media platforms..My Instagram has like 3 pictures, I don't even remember my Twitter password, and I have an on-and-off relationship with Tumblr..But now I have so much time so I thought I would get back into blogging and interacting with other bloggers.

Quick Update:
- I graduated 2 years ago with a Bachelors in Child Psychology (my last post here was back when I was still a Sophmore in college..!)

- I had my first "real" job as an Assistant Teacher at a preschool in NYC but had to leave after only a year because of health issues - After I quit my job, I moved back home to my parents and have been sleeping in, catching up on my reading and tv shows, and just been really, really taking advantage of my unemployment by being LAZY (cough cough I mean resting obviously because of my health issue and all..)

- But secretly, I've been applying to Teach for America and didn't really tell anyone about it because I didn't want to stir up hope and disappoint my parents if I didn't get accepted because they're already disappointed that I'm not working at a big, fancy corporation.

They gave up their dreams of me becoming a doctor or lawyer years ago and have been really adamant about their disapproval of my decision to work with children. But I know my calling is with children and specifically with a lower-income population so I probably won't be making 6 figures (sorry mom and dad!) but I know I'll be rich in heart.