At the end of all Peace Corps Volunteers service we're required to submit a "DOS" which basically summaries everything we've done over the past two years for both PC record and for future job prospects. It's weird that's it's all down on paper - I hope it looks impressive...
Matthew
Brady
Ukraine |
March
2011 – June 2013
After a competitive application process
emphasizing professional skills, motivation, adaptability, cross-cultural
understanding and medical fitness, Peace Corps invited Mr. Matthew Brady to
serve as a Youth Development Volunteer in Ukraine.
Pre-service
training
On March 23, 2011, Mr. Brady joined the 41st
group of Peace Corps Volunteers to serve in Ukraine. He entered an intensive 11-week
community-based training program.
Training
program included –
·
200
hours of Ukrainian language instruction and field-trips
·
80
hours of technical training on youth policy and youth development in Ukraine,
including eight weeks of classroom observation, teaching and summer youth camp
practice
·
30
hours of area studies (history, economics and cultural norms)
·
20
hours of personal health and safety training
·
8
hours of HIV/AIDS education (how to incorporate within the English classroom)
To reinforce language and cross-cultural learning,
Mr. Brady lived with a Ukrainian family in the town of Kozelets, Chernihiv
Region throughout training.
In preparation for his Peace Corps service, while
a trainee, Mr. Brady worked at Kozelets School I-III. While at Kozelets School I-III, Mr. Brady
taught English and Healthy Lifestyle classes as well as planned a summer camp,
emphasizing on sports, teamwork, nutrition, and exercise. In collaboration with
four other trainees, Mr. Brady organized and held a fundraising event to
provide trainings on volunteerism and community activism to secondary school
students in Kozelets School I-III while also providing new musical instruments
and new school resources to the local school for disabled children.
Assignment
U.S. Ambassador John F. Tefft. swore in Mr. Brady
as a Peace Corps Volunteer on June 16, 2011 in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Mr. Brady was assigned to Harkushyntsi, Poltava
region, a village community of around 1,200 Ukrainian and Russian speakers in central
Ukraine. He worked as a youth development volunteer at Harkushyntsi Specialized
School I-III, which served a student body of 120 and 28 faculty members.
Harkushyntsi Specialized School I-III is located in the Myrhorod district, and
the school’s U.S. equivalent in elementary, middle, and high school.
Mr. Brady worked under the supervising authority
of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine as represented by his job
supervisors, school Principal Ivan Vitenko and English teacher Yulia Karpenko.
The school year began each year on September 1 and ended on the last
Friday of May. There were approximately 140 school days in each school year and
Mr. Brady worked on approximately 120 of them.
Harkushyntsi
Specialized School I-III Projects & Seminars –
·
Mr.
Brady taught between 15 – 17 hours of formal lessons each semester in English,
Biology/Healthy Lifestyles, and Physical Education as follows:
2011-2012 School Year
1st
grade 1 hour/week
2nd
grade 1 hour/week
4th
grade 1 hour /week
5th
grade 5 hours/week
7th
grade 3 hours/week
8th
grade 2 hours/week
9th
grade 1 hour/week
11th
grade 1
hour/week
2012-2013 School Year
1st
grade 1 hour/week
2nd
grade 1 hour/week
4th
grade 1 hour /week
5th
grade 2 hours/week
6th
grade 3 hours/week
7th
grade 3 hours/week
8th
grade 1 hours/week
9th
grade 2 hour/week
10th
grade 2
hours/week
11th
grade 1
hour/week
·
Volunteerism/Values
in America & Peace Corps seminar
o
Myrhorod
district teachers conference (August 2011)
o
Myrhorod
district teachers of ethics (December 2011)
·
Olympiad
training (September 2011)
o
Olympiad
is a yearly national competition in a variety of school subject matters
o
Mr.
Brady held specialized trainings for higher level English speaking students who
participated in this competition
o
Trainings
focused on English reading/pronunciation, conversational speaking, and writing
·
FLEX
training (October 2011)
o
FLEX
is a study abroad program for 8th – 10th grade Ukrainians
to live in the United States for one full school year
o
Mr.
Brady planned and held practice sessions for interested students that led up
until the testing held in the regional center, Poltava
·
Pen
Pal Letter/Cultural Exchange (2012-2013)
o
Organized
correspondences between American and Ukrainian students from 1st – 5th grade
·
Darien
Book Aid (February 2012)
o
Filed
for and received free English literature at varying reading levels
·
International
Volunteerism Day (5 December 2012)
o
Designed
and conducted a one day volunteerism seminar, in Ukrainian language, discussing
why people volunteer, what they do, and the differences between volunteerism in
America and Ukraine to both school faculty and students
·
English
Day Camps – the following were the topics covered in one day camps conducted
with the assistance of fellow Peace Corps volunteers
o
Leadership/project
design and management (28 January 2012)
o
Health/nutrition/exercise
(24 February 2012)
o
Ecology/environmental
protection (26 April 2012)
o
Human
rights (8 May 2012)
o Career planning (26 April 2013)
Clubs –
·
Mr.
Brady coordinated and organized clubs for varying age demographics as follows:
2011-2012 School
Year
5th – 11th grade 2 hour/week Topic
based vocabulary practice, English games
5th – 7th
grade 2 hour/week English games, sentence construction, art
8th – 11th
grade 2 hour /week Music translation, English TV, Conversation
practice
2012-2013 School Year
5th – 11th grade 3 hour/week Country
Study, Newspaper, and English Movie/Music
8th – 11th
grade 3 hour /week Running and Sports
Secondary
Organization Projects & Seminars –
·
Naturalist
Station (2011-2013) – with the help of this government funded
ecological/healthy lifestyle organization, Mr. Brady was able to expand his
student audience by visiting village communities throughout Myrhorod district
to teach, in Ukrainian language, a variety of topics
o
Conducted
5 Smoking/Alcohol seminars
o
Conducted
3 Health/Nutrition seminars
o
Conducted
10 American youth/culture seminars
o
Regional
Naturalist Station training on HIV/AIDS and American youth organizations
·
Harkushyntsi
Kindergarten (2011-2013)
o
TEFL
– 2 hours/week to 8 to 12 kindergartners
o
Collaborated
on two media presentations showcasing the activities and lessons provided at
the Harkushyntsi Kindergarten
·
Myrhorod
Kindergarten (2011)
o TEFL – 2 hours/week to 30 to 45
kindergartners
In-Service
Training –
·
Volunteerism
in Ukraine (16-19 August 2011)
o
Attended
with job supervisor Yulia Karpenko
o
Trainings
on project design and management
·
Peace
Corps Language Refresher (17-20 January 2012)
·
PEPFAR
(6-10 February 2012) (4-8 February 2013)
o
In
2012, Mr. Brady attended as a participant with job supervisor Yulia Karpenko
o
In
2013, Mr. Brady was invited to be the HIV/AIDS English Trainer to fellow PCVs for
the conference
Grants –
·
PEPFAR
grant ($502) (December 2011 – December 2012)
o
Worked
in conjunction with the Naturalist Station from Myrhorod district
o
Organized
HIV Training of Trainers of 20 administrative representatives and health
teachers from varying schools in Myrhorod district
o
Organized
HIV trainings, in Ukrainian language, on HIV biology, transmission, and stigma
and discrimination for a total of 295 8th – 11th grade students from 10 village schools throughout
Myrhorod district
o
A
grant funded and student made art instillation focusing on what participating
schools had learned about HIV/AIDS was put up on display in Myrhorod for World
AIDS Day (1 December 2012)
·
Media
and English Resource Center ($1928.11) (September 2012 – March 2013)
o
In
corporation with Harkushyntsi Specialized School I-III, Mr. Brady received a Peace
Corps partnership grant which went to upgrading English resources along with
purchasing new media technology
§
64
new English textbooks
§
Installation
of Wi-Fi, video projector, projecting screen, and printer
o
Mr.
Brady conducted teacher trainings on how to utilize the new technology/resources
into their lessons
·
Healthy
Lifestyles Working Group Mini-grant ($50) (14 October 2012)
o
Students
from 2nd – 10th
grades along with and their parents from Harkushyntsi Specialized School I-III
participated in a family based competition to promote healthy fitness,
exercise, as well as the importance of communication
Camps –
·
Camp
HEAL (1-8 July 2011) (4-12 July 2012)
o
2011
– camp counselor and photographer
o
2012
– photographer, head teacher of HIV biology, transmission, prevention, stigma
and discrimination, and public speaking
§
Attended
by Mr. Brady’s job supervisor Yulia Karpenko and students from Harkushyntsi
Specialized School I-III
·
Camp
LEAD (20-25 August 2011) (19-24 August 2012)
o
Team
leader and head teacher
·
Poltava
Youth Leadership Conference Mini-Camp (7-9 October 2011)
o
Assisted
young adult Ukrainian counselors in teaching Ukrainian youth about leadership,
fundraising, and project design and management
o
Photographer
·
Baseball
Camp (10-15 June 2012)
o
Team
captain and facilitator to teach/share the American sport of baseball
·
Mini-Camp
HEAL (27-29 October 2012)
o
Team
leader, photographer, and head teacher of HIV biology and transmission
Extracurricular
Activities –
·
Training
Advisory Group – Mr. Brady was the youth development representative for Peace
Corps service group 41
o
Conducted/reported
survey information that went into restructuring the youth development framework
for future volunteers of Ukraine
o
Peace
Corps group 43 arrival retreat representative/presenter
·
Healthy
lifestyles Working Group – cochairman of the projects subcommittee
·
HIV/AIDS
Working Group – active member of the camps and resources subcommittees
Throughout his service, Mr. Brady actively worked
to improve his language proficiency through integrating into his hosting
families/community as well as working with a tutor in Ukrainian and Russian
languages throughout his service. Under the parameters of Peace Corps’ language
examinations, Mr. Brady ended his service with an Advanced Medium score in
Ukrainian language.
Following Ukraine's Declaration of Independence in
1991 and its decision to become an independent democratic country, a bilateral
agreement was signed by US and Ukrainian Presidents to establish a U.S. Peace
Corps Program in Ukraine in 1992. Since then, US Peace Corps Volunteers have
been serving in Ukraine in the areas of business development, education,
environmental protection, youth development, and community development. Mr.
Matthew Brady’s work as a Youth Development Volunteer, as well as his role as a
representative of the people, culture, values and traditions of the United
States of America, was part of a nation-wide development effort in Ukraine.
Mr. Matthew Brady completed his Peace Corps
service in Ukraine on June 5, 2013.
Pursuant to § 5(f) of the Peace Corps Act, 22 USC
2504(f), as amended, any former Volunteer employed by the United States
Government following his Peace Corps Volunteer Service is entitled to have any
period of satisfactory Peace Corps service credited for purposes of retirement,
seniority, reduction in force, leave, and other privileges based on length of
Government service. That service shall
not be credited toward completion of the probationary or trial period of any
service requirement for career appointment.
This is to certify in accordance with Executive
Order 11103 of April 10, 1963, that Mr. Matthew Brady served successfully as a
Peace Corps Volunteer. His service ended
on June 5, 2013. He is therefore eligible to be appointed as a
career-conditional employee in the competitive civil service on a
non-competitive basis. This benefit
under the Executive Order extends for a period of one year after termination of
Volunteer service, except that the employing agency may extend the period for
up to three years for a former Volunteer who enters military service, pursues
studies at a recognized institution of higher learning, or engages in other
activities that, in the view of the appointing agency, warrant extension of the
period.
