Adelante
Programs and Reviews
What were you doing in 1999? That is when Adelante Abroad sent its first candidate to Madrid, Spain, to do an International Internship Program there. She participated in a 6 month program, in a graphic design internship with a mid-sized company and lived, at first, on her own in a great little downtown apartment. By the following month we sent over two more candidates and have never looked back.
Internship, Semester & Summer Study, Teach and Volunteer Abroad programs define our menu of offerings and expertise now. Yes, you have your own room in a central, shared apartment, but meals are typically not included because we want you to grocery shop in your new country. Yes, we have staff on site full time but do they call you every day to check in? Nope. They are there if you need them but are trained to give you space to bump into things, make mistakes and finally find, on your own, how you fit in to your new country & home.
Programs Abroad
Reviews
90%Overall
Rating
100%Overall
Rating
I really enjoyed my time in Costa Rica. I got a chance to emerge into a new lifestyle and culture while going to school. This is something that I highly reccommend to just about anyone.
Critical Feedback:
round trip airport transfers
90%Overall
Rating
I have just returned from a two month stay in Madrid. Overall, I had a very good time. The language school
is one of the best I have ever attended, and the teachers and the director are always helpful and friendly. I was staying in an apartment in the same building as the school, in a very good location just five minutes from Puerta de Sol, which is the very centre of Madrid. The apartment was nice, and any problem was fixed quickly by the staff. I was also very happy that I could have friends staying with me for a couple of days.
After two weeks of language classes, I started my internship with a Psychiatrist and his team. It was a very good experience, both personally and professionally. Everybody was very nice, trying to make me feel welcome, and helping me with language problems. It was of course a bit daunting at first, but in the end I was very sorry to leave. I got to sit in during therapy sessions, and also to talk to patients myself while they waited or did some tests etc. The Doctor was always happy to explain things and I learned a lot, especially on CBT and pharmacotherapy. I think it s a valuable experience for anyone wanting to go into counseling psychology, but I think a good Spanish level is important so you can communicate with the patients, and you need to be prepared to adjust to the rhythm of the 'Consulta'. Not all patients are comfortable to have others around during the sessions, so there can be quite some time spend waiting around, and the working hours are irregular.
My tip would be to read some of the Doctor's books before going, it's very helpful.
As to the city, I have been to Madrid many times already, and love the place, it's beautiful, people are great, and there is lots to do. I would definitively recommend this program.
Critical Feedback:
90%Overall
Rating
I am the lucky Adelante scholarship winner. I am interning with Party Earth and am learning the art of taking photographs and writing reviews of and on the local social scene in Barcelona, from coffee shops to bars to clubs. I have learnt a lot about how the city works, systematically covering all of the different sections of Barcelona, making great new friends as I go along. One of my pictures was recently used in the Huffington Post!!
At the ripe age of 28 I am also doing a lot of personal growth and consider this experience invaluable. I recommend this program for anyone (especially people who think they might be too old for something like this!).
I am grateful for this amazing opportunity and can proudly say I am having the time of my life.
Critical Feedback:
I felt that the support from the Director in Barcelona could have been better. In terms of an initiation meeting before classes/ the internship starts as well as a more extensive discussion on what is to be expected. Perhaps a follow-up meeting with the director once a month or so. But other than that I have no real criticism.
100%Overall
Rating
The reason I gave a lower rating for safety is simply because everyone warned me not to go out alone at night and be careful during the day. As long as you move in groups and aren't completely ignorant to the fact that you're in another country (don't walk around with your ipod in your hand and your cell phone in your back pocket) you should be fine. I didn't hear of any in my program having any problems. GO on the excursions too! You won't regret it. Adelante Abroad was really helpful, they did everything in their power to make this happen for me!
Critical Feedback:
There were too many Americans. I was the only non-American. A more diverse group would really have helped my cultural experience be more related to the country that I was visiting. It was really hard NOT to speak English which impeded my learning.
Adelante's Response to kndarwin:
Thank you, K. for the 100% grade and the shout out about the truly amazing excursions offered in the Adelante Abroad Costa Rica programs! Yes, we definitely do overstate the safety concerns - rather have you be over cautious than under during your short time abroad.
Alumni Interviews
Staff Interview
Go Overseas recently caught up with Adelante Abroad Director of Programs, Kimberly Haber. With a worn our passport but a very nest-y home in Seal Beach, California, she oversees Adelante Abroad, LLC. Kimberly speaks Spanish fluently, is working on Mandarin and earned a BA in Economics from USCB. Pulling from US work experience with a professional baseball team (The Anaheim Angels) and the education franchise industry, as well as International work experience (5 years living abroad in Spain), Kimberly & crew create a network of contacts to build un-copiable programs in Spain, Chile, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Chile and Scotland.
Go Overseas: What position do you hold at Adelante Abroad? What has your career path been like so far?
Kimberly: I am the Director of Programs at Adelante Abroad, so I get to work with all our candidates once they are screened and accepted into our programs. This position also requires that I travel to each of our Program destinations at least once every 2-3 years, which is getting harder to do as we add more cities! No complaints here though: who wouldn't want to "have" to go to Madrid or Costa Rica or Scotland?! Career path seems so far away since I have been doing this now for 15 years, but a key component to landing where I am now was living and working in Spain. I graduated UCSB and then began travelling, since I wasn't able to study abroad during college. That trip lasted about 9 months, and then I eventually went back and settled in the south of Spain, which was my favorite place visited during my original travels. I did try working in a non-international education setting for a while, doing a stint with the California Angels baseball team and after that, with franchise company, but my heart was always in things international.
Go Overseas: What are the core principles Adelante Abroad strives to achieve?
Kimberly: Our main core principal is affordability. We want to provide a quality internship and abroad experience, without a lot of bells and whistles. For this reason, we do not send thousands of candidates abroad each year: each person will create, with us, a customized program that will change their lives in ways that simply cannot happen "at home".
Go Overseas: What separates Adelante Abroad from other internship providers?
Kimberly: This company is far and away the true "internships specialist" out there - and further, we do it cheaper than anyone else. That is our goal and we pretty much meet it each year. What also separates us from other providers is our long list of participating companies in each of our international cities. We work hard to cultivate that list and it benefits our intern and study abroad candidates directly. We find each of our candidates an internship in their desired sector, based on their field of studies, past experiences and language level. We put them in rigorous classes and find them their own room in clean, safe, centrally located housing. We have local staff that live full time in all of our program cities.
Go Overseas: What does the future hold for Adelante Abroad?
Kimberly: China. Organic growth. We have added Scotland a few years back, now that is going extremely successfully, we will add China in 2013. After that, probably Ecuador. Adelante Abroad prides itself on our boutique mentality - we will not be going corporate any time soon!
I had a good experience with Adelante and their program in Madrid. I'll break my experience down to the categories:
Adelante Support Staff: I had to get a visa because I was there for more than 90 days. They were VERY helpful and even gave me a letter saying I had paid for the program (when I still hadn't yet) so that I could get my visa from the consulate in Chicago. They were also good at responding quickly to emails and questions, which is important because they do all their interaction and communication via phone and email.
Housing: I chose the "live with Spaniards" option, which really means living with other international students. That ended up still being nice because we all still spoke Spanish and I got to sample a tiny bit more of European life through them. My flat mates were from France, Belgium, and there was one Spaniard. There were 6 people total and two bathrooms in the unit, each with our own bedroom. One thing I will say is that the housing service (called Aluni) that they use is a bit disorganized. I got WAY overcharged for the housing deposit and it took them awhile to return it. They also claimed I hadn't turned in the keys at the end, which I did, they just hadn't checked the mailbox. You also have to buy your own food at the grocery store, so take that into account in the cost of the program.
Two week Spanish classes: I actually really enjoyed these. You take a test that places you in a certain level and you learn pretty standard grammar, idiomatic phrases, etc. not related to your internship. They also give you a book that you can keep that has literally ALL the grammar rules of Spanish. That was really helpful. I also befriended a lot of other Europeans who were in my class and visited one of them after she returned home to German.
Internship: My unpaid internship was good, not phenomenal, but good. I worked at a law office about 20 minutes away from my flat and did a tax project the whole time. I mostly learned about different income tax rates in 60 different countries. My boss was nice but not around too often. One thing though, most of the people in who worked in the office were German, so they spoke German all the time. There was one guy who spoke fluent Spanish, so I talked with him in Spanish. But the others only spoke German or English, so I had to communicate in English with them. At the end I got a letter of recommendation after asking for one.
Daily Life: After my internship I would always have a new neighborhood or part of the city that I wanted to explore. That was good because by the end I knew so much about the city and where things were. A lot of Spaniards commented that I knew the city/metro/buses better than they did by the end. I also went to language exchanges at coffee shops on certain nights to practice my Spanish even more.
Overall: Overall, I liked the program and would recommend it, but not to everyone. You have to be VERY independent and well organized. If you're someone who's used to people doing stuff for you/structuring things for you then you may find yourself bored simply because you don't know what to do after your internship gets done every day. Also, you have to be outgoing. You can befriend your roommates but if you want to meet Spaniards/have Spanish friends then you have to be willing to go out of your way to meet them, as the program doesn't give you a ton of opportunities to organically meet Spaniards. I joined a free Spanish online dating website, which actually ended up being an excellent way to meet people (not just romance either, you can meet friends too!).
Critical Feedback:
I already talked a lot about this. One thing I forgot is that the beds/pillows aren't the most comfortable. But that's minor.