Internships in Chile - Adelante Abroad

I was a candidate in Adelante's Chile program for three months in early 2017. At the risk of sounding hacknied, the experience was utterly transformative, thanks in large part to Adelante.

After a friendly chat with the feller sent to pick me up from the airport, I arrived to the candidate apartment. Strangely, it was way nicer than it looked in the pictures. Classes at the International Center (Adelante's in-country fixer organization, which also maintains the apartment and a network of homestay families) started a few days later. They were daily group lessons taught by the wonderful Marcela, who took us on excursions in Viña and Valpo as part of the lessons, and advised us extensively on where to buy meat, how to navigate the streets and slang, etc. The International Center crew was not only extremely communicative (and able to speak English, in large part), they took us out and were generally good buddies. I was traveling alone, so that gracious friendliness kept a certain amount of loneliness at bay.

In my second month I moved to a family homestay. There was some confusion here in regard to communication between the International Center and Adelante, but I still ended up in the right place. The host family was extremely accomodating, but a bit controlling. I decided that I wanted to try a different host family a month later, and the Adelante/IC folks had me in a new house the next day. Despite small problems with the host families themselves, Adelante/IC was adament about holding them accountable, and urged me to report any issue that came up.

My internship assignment was spot on. Marcela made sure I knew how to get there and who to talk to (although the beautiful madness of Chilean Spanish made it difficult to chat at first). I was allowed to work at my own pace and take as many tourism days off as I needed. The staff was endlessly cool... if you end up in the area, I recommend you tune in to Radio Valentín Letelier for a (really) broad mix of alternative music.

There are countless wonderful details about the experience that I don't have time to impart, but I gotta mention the excursions to a local vineyard (the first included as part of lessons, the second offered for free when my parents came to visit me) and Charlie (a sweet street dog often accompanied by "the yellow dog," both of whom followed me into supermarkets, churches, and anywhere else). Generally, the atmosphere of the Adelante/IC was one of helpful kindness, and that made good things happen.

I'm omitting a lot of difficult experiences, which were equally essential to the emotional and lingual growth I achieved down there, but none of those were Adelante's fault. In retrospect, I'm awfully grateful for those negative experiences, but pleased to say that they didn't stem from the organization to which I paid $4000.

Adelante is trustworthy and Chile is indescribably worthwhile. Buen viaje, folks. Pick up a slang dictionary on your way.

-Arlo

Teaching English in Chile was wonderful! My experience was great from the beginning. I had a really nice driver from the Santiago airport to my apartment in Vina del Mar. Once I got to Vina, I had a really nice stay at a large apartment with two roommates. At my internship, the staff was really nice and helpful, and so were the students. I was really able to focus on teaching the material and helping students master English. I would definitely recommend this program to anyone.

Hello! My name is Nancy Haro and this summer I spent two months in Vina Del Mar/Valparaiso Chile. Adelante Abroad was incredibly helpful and they were in constant contact with me before my departure and throughout my stay in Chile. The director in my host country was incredibly sweet and helpful as well which made my first time on my own in a foreign country much easier. I lived in a three-bedroom house with roommates and we each had our own room. The Spanish classes and our respective internships were only Monday through Friday, so we would take advantage of the weekends to go dancing (numerous dance clubs were at walking distance from the house). Restaurants, shopping centers, the beach, some museums, and much more, are at walking distance from the house; however, places that are not, there are many other convenient modes of transportation such as, buses, el metro, and colectivos (collective taxis). The hills of Valparaiso have some of the most beautiful murals I have ever had the pleasure of seeing!

I interned at the with the Servicio Nacional de la Mujer at the Centro de la Mujer of Villa Alemana. I was blessed to work with an amazing team and since I was the first international intern they had ever worked with, they were able to learn from me as I was able to learn from them. It was a rewarding experience to be able to study, work, and live in Chile and I highly recommend everyone to do it!! If you have never been away on your own, like me, Chile is definitely the place to go!

I highly recommend Chile for anyone looking to work or study abroad, I highly recommend Viña for foreigners live in Chile and I highly recommend Adelante as an intern placement program within this region. My experience with Adelante was a truly valuable to me and the experience I gained there has already begun to pay dividends in may professional career. From day one (or even, well in advance of day one), Adelante is invested in its clients and responsive to all questions and concerns. Their staff both in the United States are caring and committed to the success of your program.

Personally, I had a great experience working first for a Chilean law firm, then in the legal department for a university based start-up "incubator" I learned a lot doing so and was able to make valuable business contacts in the process. Your experience may vary but the constant will be the constant attention and support you get from this Adelante's friendly and professional team.

I highly recommend interning abroad with Adelante.

Hi.
I'm Jonathan. I was taking part in the adelante program from december 2013-May 2014.
I graduated from Uni in June of 2013. I'm half Chilean though I was born in the US and never had a chance to visit Chile and it's something I've always wanted to do.
I knew that I wanted to continue working in PR and advertising as it's something I became truly passionate about over the past 2 years. So after my interview with the program's director Kimberly she had just the right place in mind. She told me about my internship placement in Valparaiso with a small but hustling business incubator called Chrysalis. When I met the staff there in December I felt a vibe that would keep me motivated to get as much work done as possible.
The staff at Chrysalis are all young and most are post grads while some are still finishing their thesis as Uni for a student in Chile can take up to 7 years to complete.
I specialized in Audiovisual production. Which at the end of the day meant that I would be working with the businesses that had been incubated and make videos for them. From a simple 30 second product demo to a 5 minute video over a biomechanics product used by a bioengineering team named Infratec to detect the level of Parkinsons in a patient.
I loved the work environment and after I finished my classes at the International Center I decided to intern full time. True this limited my overall travel experiences in Chile but for me it was incredibly important that I begin to pump up my resume and portfolio. I don't regret going full time at my internship one bit, when you do something you enjoy the hours you spend in it shouldn't matter right?
At the end of my work I had become close friends with the office and I still keep in contact with them. Especially now that the world cup is going on!

Aside from the working aspect is the social aspect, everything not related to work. Viña del Mar is wonderful, the better beaches are further north going towards Reñaca and Concon. It's very easy to get between the cities in Valparaiso bay. 20 minute bus rides from central Viña and you're in the heart of Valpo or the coast of Concon. Traffic though can be a little crazy as it seems that everyone enjoys speeding..
The food everywhere is delicious. I never found a bad restaurant. The quality of the vegetables are top, the same goes for the seafood and meat (at least until you have an asado in Argentina...) but there are plenty of supermarkets and fairly cheap to buy good produce on the corners outside the supermarkets. New Years was amazing, spending it on the beach with friends and thousands of others who come from all over Chile and South America to enjoy one of the best firework shows in South America. It's memories like that that last a life time and I have plenty of those from Chile.
Remember how I said I'm half Chilean? Well guess what. I got to see an uncle and his family who I've never met before who live in Limache which is the last metro stop leaving Viña going towards Limache (duh!) and my time with my family there was precious as I learned and experienced a lot of what it feels like to be a part of a real Chilean family. Chileans are incredibly loving people and they will care for you if you treat them with respect and have an open heart and mind to their culture. I would recommend this program for anyone, especially because Chile is a growing nation and has a strong economy and it shows as there is construction nearly every kilometer in any direction haha. I love Chile and I hope you consider it too because it'll be an abroad experience like nothing you would expect.

Overall I enjoyed my time in Chile through Adelante, and found it a good way to explore a new country while having support and help from others. The intensive Spanish course at the start was enjoyable and helpful, and the staff at the International Centre were great at resolving any issues I had.

There were several aspects of the program which I felt could have been improved, one of them being the excursions/cultural immersion aspect. Although there were some activities at the start, I felt like it would have been beneficial for the staff to organise a few more things throughout my time in Chile, even if it was just a get-together to help get to know more of the people doing the program.

I applied to do an internship at a graphic design studio, however was placed in a company which was more of a print shop. I expressed my concerns to Adelante, and they were helpful and responsive. In the end, I decided to stay at the same company, and enjoyed working with the other employees and helping out though I did not learn as much as I would have liked in relation to my profession, such as creating actual design work. Nevertheless I still enjoyed my time there, however I felt this could have been made a bit clearer at the start.

In the end, the experience was still a positive one, where I learned a lot about another culture, was able to travel to some amazing places on the weekends and met some great people. I always felt that help and support was available if needed, and enjoyed the experience of living in a shared apartment with other interns.

I had thoroughly enjoyed my exchange to Chile to work in an architecture office for three months. The three weeks intensive Spanish language course is extremely helpful and essential to allow myself to learn the local traditions and customs prior to my work placement. All the staff in the school were very welcoming and friendly. I learnt the many useful Chilean slangs while I was there, and I also got to meet other people who were in the same programme and so we all got to hang out and became instant friends.

In my first month I was placed in a housing placement with a local host family due to an unexpected cancellation of my room mate, but I was glad I did. My Chilean family was very lovely and showed me places around Chile when we were travelling with their extended family. I felt like I was part of the family and today although I am back in New Zealand in my home, we are still in contact.

The challenges I faced was to develop friendships with the locals. I had quickly develop friends among other travelers and other people in the same programme, and one day we heard that there is a meeting for Chileans who want to learn English at a local cafe every week. When we decided to check it out one night, we ended up developing a circle of friends between us from the Institute and some local Chilean students. It was great because they were practicing their English while we practiced Spanish. I am now still in contact with all of them, Chileans and the other travelers, and we are now planning to visit one another in our various countries.

Finally, my work placement was the best part out of this programme. I gained valuable experience and skills from my internship at the architecture office. It definitely made my resume stood out when I applied for jobs at home. Overseas internship shows courage, commitment and adaptability skills in becoming accustomed to a new work environment and system. It also shows strong motivation and personal resilience in learning a new language quickly and put into practice when dealing with clients and negotiate with other team members. I believe that this internship has played a major role in my success in securing a permanent job within my field. I am now working as a city planner in a local council.

I definitely made the best choice in choosing this programme with Adelante for my post-university travel. I had the time of my life travelling around Chile (and other countries in South America), meeting some amazing people from various backgrounds and cultures, and gaining a valuable work experience to add to my resume. All within a very reasonable price! Much cheaper than those travel for students packages without the opportunity to gain work experience.

Thanks Adelante!

The only negative aspect of the program was that the housing was not as it was advertised. Also, Adelante never contacted me about anything except to ask that I participate more in their online community. In my opinion, Adelante was completely unnecessary, but the staff and people at the International Center are amazing. As a note for the next question: I would recommend that they contact the International Center directly and not waste their time/money with Adelante.