2024 Program Application for Group Leader - Operation Crossroads Africa 2024

Please answer all questions.

Personal Information

First NameMiddle NameLast Name

GenderFemaleMale

AgeDate of BirthPlace of BirthCurrent CitizenshipVisa status, if you are not a US citizenCurrent AddressCurrent Telephone NumberEmail AddressPermanent Telephone NumberPermanent Address

Emergency Contact:

NameTelephone NumberAddress

Do you have any known medical, psychological or physical condition that would affect your participation in the Africa Program?NoYes

If yes, please give details

Education / Employment Background

School NameMajor / ConcentrationCareer GoalOccupation, if not a student

List the names and addresses of two people who have agreed to serve as references for you. Download the International Group Leaders Reference Form and give it to them to fill out and return to Operation Crossroads Africa.

Reference-1 NameReference-1 AddressReference-1 Relationship to ApplicantReference-2 NameReference-2 AddressReference-2 Relationship to Applicant

Qualifications & Interests

What languages, other than English, do you speak? Indicate your level of proficiency in each language: Fair, Good, Fluent.

LanguageProficiencyLanguageProficiency

Do you want to be assigned to a French speaking country?YesNo

Do you wish to assigned to a particular type of project? If so, which?Do you wish to be assigned to a particular country? If so, which?

Do you have a passport?YesNo

If yes, what country issued your passport?Passport NumberHow did you hear about Operation Crossroads Africa?Other

Help us to get to know you

In no more than 500 words, write a brief autobiographical sketch that includes references to any previous travel, group work or relevant personal experience.

Answer the following questions –

1. Why do you want to participate in Operation Crossroads Africa?2. What is your understanding of the Crossroads program?3. What impressions come to mind when you hear the word Africa?4. How do you deal with frustrations and disappointments?5. What are three important things that you want people to know about you?6. If necessary, how will you raise your participation fee?

Group Leader Scenarios

Please read the following scenarios and prepare a written response of no more than five double-spaced pages that:

Identifies the issues raised by the fact patterns;
Presents approaches for how you as a leader would deal with the issues; and
Discusses possible consequences of using various types of approaches.

Part A:

You arrive in your country after a tortuous, much delayed 27-hour trip. Half of your group’s luggage has ended up on a flight to Tokyo. Because of delays in arriving in your host country, no one meets you at the airport. It is 3:00 a.m. The telephones at the airport are not operable. There is no airport transport except taxis. A taxi driver tells you that he will take you into town for $25.00 a head—there are 12 people in your group. The airport bank is closed, and you have Travelers Checks only. It has begun to rain heavily.

The airport authorities tell you that the airport is closing immediately and your group must leave the terminal. A group member informs you that he has contracted malaria and becomes hysterical, shouting that he is going to die unless he is seen by an American or European doctor right away.

Part A

Part B:

After resolving Part A and meeting with the local project sponsor, you are immediately placed on a bus (without an escort) and sent to your project site/village. You are told it is a ten-hour trip. The bus will actually stop at a town about 30 km from your village. Your local counterpart will meet you at the bus stop and transport you to the village. The ten-hour bus ride actually takes 15 hours; and when you arrive at 7:00 p.m. instead of 2:00 p.m., no one is there to meet you. Four members of your group have become violently ill from the bus trip and two more now insist that they too have malaria. You spot a local bar / restaurant / disco.

Part B

Part C:

After seven days in the village, interpersonal relations among group members begin to deteriorate. Three black group members begin to accept regular invitations to dine with the chief of the village who is anxious to personally become acquainted "with his black brothers and sisters from America." The six other group members become angry and complain that the chief is splitting the group along racial lines. The three black group members refuse to stop visiting the chief. The local project sponsor becomes aware of group tensions and wants to intervene.

To appease angry group members, he threatens to have the chief publicly reprimanded by local government officials for interfering in group relations. Simultaneously, one female group member begins to scold another female participant, believing that she had sexual relations with one of the village counterparts, claiming that she seduced him.

Part C

Part D:

Another participant has begun to frequent a group of young people known to be involved in drug-related activities, in spite of your continued warnings. The project sponsor informs you that the group is being watched closely and this is an issue of concern to her. You find the remains of a controlled substance in the vicinity of the lodgings site. Two other male participants regularly engage in heated political discussions with student counterparts who are members of an anti-government organization. The organization speaks out against inhumane punishments meted out to government officials labeled as corrupt. They inform you of their plan to travel to the capital with student counterparts to take part in anti-government demonstrations.

Part D

Part E:

Your group has been in the village for ten days with no project. A representative of an international aid organization passes through the village and offers to provide materials for building an experimental latrine. The village elders feel that the old pit latrines are fine, but would prefer to have an addition to the local school. The central government has promised to provide an additional teacher, thus adding an instructional level at the school. Local youth will then be qualified to enter secondary school. As chance would have it, the same materials provided by the aid organization can be used to build the new classroom.

The representative from the aid organization has stated that while he understands the village desire for the classroom, he is strictly accountable for the materials for the latrine in two weeks when the project should be halfway completed. Meanwhile, the village elders have decided not to encourage the villagers to work on the latrine project.

Part E

Part F:

Meanwhile, your group members are "up in arms" about the ineptitude of CROSSROADS and you as the group leader for the following:

Their missing luggage;
The local sponsor not meeting them at the airport;
Not arranging proper transport to the village; and
Selecting you as their leader since you have never been to Africa before.

Part F