You’ve just made the announcement to your parents, family, and friends: “I’m going to be a Peace Corps Volunteer!”  But instead of “Congratulations!” or “We’re excited for you!” maybe you hear “You’re going to be what?” or “You’re going where?” Instead of chatting non-stop about all the exciting things you are going to be doing, you instead find yourself trying to convince them that you have made a reasonable choice. But are they convinced?

Jason Ilstrup served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Niger from 2000-2002. He worked in natural resource management and environmental education.  The following are questions that we posed to him about being a Peace Corps Volunteer: