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Volunteering with the International Citizen Service

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Quick question. Had my assessment day with International Service a few days ago. It was all fine, but the last question in the one-to-one interview: 'Have you taken any illegal drugs in the past 2 years?'

In panic, I answered honestly: 'I tried cannabis once at university with a friend'.

Does anyone think this will fail my application????

More than the answer, I'm worried about the way I reacted to the question...pretty much freaked out and asked the interviewer why it was relevant.
Original post by pmishra2
Quick question. Had my assessment day with International Service a few days ago. It was all fine, but the last question in the one-to-one interview: 'Have you taken any illegal drugs in the past 2 years?'

In panic, I answered honestly: 'I tried cannabis once at university with a friend'.

Does anyone think this will fail my application????

More than the answer, I'm worried about the way I reacted to the question...pretty much freaked out and asked the interviewer why it was relevant.

I don't think it will stop you from taking part in the programme. They wouldn't stop you just by saying you've smoked weed. Especially since they allow people with criminal records to join. As long as you did well in the group tasks and were yourself, you'll be fine. I got accepted about a week ago and surprised myself, I thought I did rubbish haha.
Original post by JacobM96
I don't think it will stop you from taking part in the programme. They wouldn't stop you just by saying you've smoked weed. Especially since they allow people with criminal records to join. As long as you did well in the group tasks and were yourself, you'll be fine. I got accepted about a week ago and surprised myself, I thought I did rubbish haha.


I was also, successful, do you know where you'll be going yet?
Original post by Calum0001
I was also, successful, do you know where you'll be going yet?



Nope. I forgot to bring my health form with me so I had to email it to them after I was accepted. So I think I just need to wait for them to medically clear me before I'm placed to a country. I wanna start fundraising though!
Do you know where you're going?
Original post by JacobM96
Nope. I forgot to bring my health form with me so I had to email it to them after I was accepted. So I think I just need to wait for them to medically clear me before I'm placed to a country. I wanna start fundraising though!
Do you know where you're going?


Yeah, going to Nepal in February hopefully! Really happy with that. :biggrin:
Original post by Calum0001
Yeah, going to Nepal in February hopefully! Really happy with that. :biggrin:


Oh that's awesome! I really want to go to Cambodia. Fingers crossed :colondollar:
Original post by JacobM96
Oh that's awesome! I really want to go to Cambodia. Fingers crossed :colondollar:


Aye, hope you get what you want!
Reply 407
Original post by JacobM96
Hey. It was honestly fine. There were 4 activities/tasks that we had to do. First one is an ice breaker, nothing special. Then it's a problem solving exercise ( building useful items out of basic resources ). Then you have lunch and after that you go into the next activity. There were 3 dilemma's read out to us as in pairs we had to discuss how to solve these dilemma's. We later on had to go into a room and have a group discussion about how we would go about solving these problems. Then it's the interview, ( really easy, no hard questions ) and after that we had to do a 2 minute presentation on our day and what we enjoyed/didn't enjoy about it. There were 8 of us all together and about 6 assessors. Just relax, as the day goes on you're pretty tired anyway and the nerves go down. good luck!:smile:


Is the two minute presentation with the group or an individual presentation?
Reply 408
Original post by silehjf
Is the two minute presentation with the group or an individual presentation?



For our group it was individual, fairly easy though- nothing to worry about :smile:
Original post by Calum0001
Aye, hope you get what you want!


I got accepted, and I'm going to Kenya in February :biggrin: Are you definitely going to Nepal?
Holaholahola, just applied for Late June - Septemberish next year! If anyone else applied this early, how long did it take for you to get some sort of reply from them? Thanks~
Yea I have applied too, I received an email saying I had passed the first stage but that they wouldnt be dealing with applications for those dates until after the January people are all sorted out
Hi everyone , I've just applied off my phone and now I'm worried after reading this! I was only asked my name age address contact number and email, and then asked why I wanted to do it and if I had volunteered anywhere before. Then when could start and when I would have to be home for. No mention of preferences or anything, only took me ten minutes...:/ have I done something wrong?! Was it because I'm on my phone?! Thanks in advance :smile:
STOP IT. Please everyone ask yourself how come you want to carry out such an experience and think about the impact this is really having on the people that you are supposedly going to 'help'. If you are going somewhere to learn then please learn however if you are going to 'help' then think again. there are better programmes out there which focus on ethical volunteering where the volunteer experience a cultural learning exchange with the host community, you learning from them and them learning from you. This is much better than this ICS 'jolly'.
Original post by jonjonjon12321
STOP IT. Please everyone ask yourself how come you want to carry out such an experience and think about the impact this is really having on the people that you are supposedly going to 'help'. If you are going somewhere to learn then please learn however if you are going to 'help' then think again. there are better programmes out there which focus on ethical volunteering where the volunteer experience a cultural learning exchange with the host community, you learning from them and them learning from you. This is much better than this ICS 'jolly'.


Explain?
I applied for those dates too and just got an email last week to say I had passed the first stage and Progressio would be in touch about an assessment day.
Reply 416
How was the application? I am hoping to apply for this summer.
I'm hoping to go as soon as match. My assessment day is this Wednesday with IS in York. At first I really wanted to go to Bolivia, but since getting the call from IS I realised I'm probably more suitable for a Palestine placement. I'm so hopeful.
Original post by Willo16
I'm hoping to go as soon as match. My assessment day is this Wednesday with IS in York. At first I really wanted to go to Bolivia, but since getting the call from IS I realised I'm probably more suitable for a Palestine placement. I'm so hopeful.


So difficult to tell if this is serious or some kind of tasteless joke
I'm sorry I in no way intended that. I'll be sure to use the full name of the charity from now on.

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