Individual Spanish Host Family Immersion for High School Students

I am leaving this review as the parent of my 16-year old daughter who participated in this program. This was a great experience: ECI is organized, informative, and thorough. My daughter felt safe, was paired with a wonderful exchange family, and improved her Spanish skills greatly. I would recommend this program highly. My daughter's chaperone met her in the Bilbao airport and transported her directly to her exchange family's doorstep. The family was well-prepared to greet my daughter and make her feel comfortable. All 4 members of the family were kind and helpful. This is a really important part of a student exchange: making sure the student and family are compatible. ECI did a really great job with this!

Through ECI, I had the opportunity to live with an amazing family in San Sebastian, Spain. I was placed with a family who had a daughter of similar age, and a brother about a year older. Although I was better placed than some of my peers, I was fortunate enough to be matched to a very caring and understanding family. Speaking little to no English, I was given the opportunity to truly test my Spanish skills as I put them to the test, while simultaneously learning some slang and out of textbook experiences. While staying with my host family, I had the opportunity to integrate myself into my host sisters close knit group of friends; from swimming in the ocean, to card games on the beach and ice cream breaks, I was able to push my language skills to the test as it was my sole mode of communication with them. This experience had a truly amazing impact on my life. Although I did not explicitly write about it on my college app, the lasting affects the trip had on me and the window it opened for me to have other opportunities like volunteering locally, truly changed the individual I am today.

Hi!

My name is Emily Gross and I went on this ECI trip a few years ago. This is truly an amazing trip and opportunity to travel and immerse yourself in Spanish culture.

What is so unique about this trip is being able to go to so many different parts of Spain. Each region in Spain is very different and by traveling to the different regions you learn so much. Not only do you get to see the different parts of Spain, you get to make new friends, enhance your spanish skills, and be abroad in a different setting unlike traveling with family.

My favorite part of this trip was staying in Granada for a couple of nights. We got to see the Alhambra and go to eat at the University of Granada (incredible food). Being in the south of Spain, we got to see the immense Moroccan influence on the spanish architecture and it was breathtaking. If you have any interest in art history or architecture, Spain has some of the best.

Even though I had traveled to a lot of spanish speaking countries before this experience, it solidified my love for the spanish language and culture. It helped me decide to be a spanish minor and to study abroad in college at the University of Granada.

This trip is a must! And if none of that matters to you, it looks really good on a resume.

Hola!

My name is Sarah Behm and I've been a chaperone with ECI for the past three summers for the Salamanca program. ECI is unique in that they provide students with a full immersion into the Spanish culture through content-based language learning (cooking, dancing, art, soccer, horseback riding) in addition to language partner sessions (tapas tasting with local Spanish teens in Spanish), University accredited Spanish courses, and a week with a host family that has a teenager similar in age. Furthermore, we have a local chaperone from Spain that only communicates with the students in Spanish. Plus, our US chaperones are all fluent in the target language - Spanish or French!

Students are also exposed to the variety of Spanish subcultures by traveling from North to South. We start with a full four days of sightseeing In Spain's capital - Madrid. Then we are off to the university town of Salamanca where students stay in dorms (just steps from the center square) and take University accredited Spanish courses. In San Sebastian students spend most of the week on the beach with their host families. And we end with a tour of our favorite southern Spain cities - Seville, Granada, and Nerja. I've seen very few study abroad programs that travel from each end of the country!

We pride ourselves on high quality housing, restaurants, language schools, activities, host families, and chaperones!

Hasta pronto! Sarah