Adelante Abroad

The internship abroad working for a non-profit organization in Valparaiso, Chile was an incredible experience. The Director, Pamela, was responsive and helpful if you have any questions regarding any concerns while you are abroad, changes to your homestay, and travel suggestions. However, I did not like taking the Spanish courses in Chile, coming in as a graduate Spanish major, because I thought it was not worth my time, for example, learning the greetings and grammar. The professors were great, but I would have changed this if I had the chance to start over and started early with the internship. On the other hand, I liked the part about learning Chilean Spanish, the names of their food, and their culture. I thought it was helpful compared to grammar in Spanish. Overall, I enjoyed my time in Chile. I loved my time there!

Very lovey experience. Unfortunately, I was not able to get the exact internship I asked for (legal). However, I still enjoyed my internship (charity office work). I met quite a lot of new people and had a lot of fun with them. I was really worried before arriving there, but I found a page on Facebook which connected everyone on the Adelante programme. The staff in Madrid were super friendly and helpful. However, in the housing no one had air conditioning, just fans - horrible during the heatwave

I had an amazing experience in Scotland on the equine program. The anatomy & physiology course was very informative, although much of the non-horse specific content was a review from previous courses. Although initially preparing for the assessment was slightly stressful, the assessment itself was fair and Louise and Rowan well-prepared us for the assessment. Both of the instructors for the course were amazing and I couldn't speak higher praises of them! The fitness course was all new material for me but Jen and Gillian presented the information and provided feedback in a manner that helped us to grow and understand the new field! They were both amazing instructors and helped us to correct our fitness plans and complete our workbook assessment without too much of an overload of new content at once. I loved living in the Scottish countryside with ample hiking opportunities and great food (although there are a lot of chips). The accommodations were private with private bathrooms which was very nice but we still had community areas available to utilize. The temperature was warmer than I expected with an average of 60s Fahrenheit. I wish I had brought more warmer weather clothing than I did. There is no central air in the flats, but I didn't mind the temperature at all. As someone with limited riding experience, I was worried for the riding portion but Sam was always very supportive of everyone and tailored the lessons to your skill level and comfort! During my free weekends, I visited Inverness and the Isle of Skye and Northern Ireland and I highly recommend both locations! One point to note is that the Oatridge campus is in rural West Lothian and it takes approximately an hour to 90 minutes by bus to get to Edinburgh depending on the wait time. We did spend a lot time waiting on buses and taxis which showed up sporadically sometimes rather early or late. The X18 bus into Edinburgh from Uphall was particularly bad at showing up on time. Although I was able to plan my time, I do wish that the full itinerary had been released earlier to allow for more planning and cheaper prices as much of the accommodation and many tours were booked out by the time we had the schedule. Overall, I had a great experience and everyone I met from the faculty and staff to my new friends here have been great, kind, and supportive! I highly recommend this study abroad to Scotland!

I loved the staff at SRUC!! The professors were warm and welcoming and they did a great job at making sure we had a healthy balance between school and fun. This program has a fun aspect of allowing you to choice what you want to do, which i really liked. If there is a tour or a city you want to go to you have the freedom to do so! I really liked the independence. super friendly staff, sadly felt like they tried to cover too many topics in such a short time. Which is a shame since i felt like i had more whistle stop tours on a topic then indepth education.

I recommend this program to anyone interested! I had no horse experience prior to this trip and felt extremely at ease throughout the program with what we were learning and doing. The staff of the campus was amazing. The teachers were phenomenal instructors that showed that they cared about their students. The trainers were so patient and accommodating to the differing levels of experience within the group. Some things that I wish I had known prior to this trip:
-Campus is relatively far from the city. If you use public transportation, it takes around an hour to get there. You can either take 2 buses or you can take 1 bus, walk 20 minutes to Uphall train station and then take a train to the city. Taxis are also an option but can be slightly expensive at times.
-Pack a VARIETY of clothes--light jacket, warm jacket, lightweight pants, jeans, shorts (for good days), TONS of layering clothes! The weather is unpredictable.
-BRING SUNSCREEN and wear it