Intern Colombia

I recently completed a six-week internship in Medellín, Colombia, and it was an incredibly enriching experience. The city's vibrant culture, combined with the warm and welcoming people I met through Intern Colombia, made every moment enjoyable and memorable. From exploring the colorful neighborhoods to participating in local festivals, the experience was both professionally and personally rewarding. The connections I made and the skills I gained have left a lasting impact, and I would do it again without hesitation!

Intern Colombia with Matthew as our program coordinator in Bogotá was a great experience! Staying in Colombia for 2.5 months was a transformative experience as I immersed myself in a new culture, made lasting friendships, and even learned Spanish! While the housing situation differs for each student, my group from UCLA lived in CityU. I believe its central location and student life played a large part in feeling safe during my stay (so try to be placed there ;). My advice when matching with internships is to really know what you want and convey your wants clearly to Matthew. Learn as much as you can about the different companies and what your role will be to make an informed decision. Matthew is very generous, culturally knowledgeable, and gave us the best well-rounded experience. However, managing multiple students is a hefty responsibility. I will add that they could use some help or improvement in understanding student needs and treating student problems as their own. I definitely recommend the program!!

I had only studied international development issues in class at university, but I luckily I got my first opportunity to really work with those issues in-field during my time working with Sistema B, an ESG-focused nonprofit that Intern Colombia matched me with. From this experience, I was able to really determine what I liked and didn't like, and it honestly pushed me forward to the path that I'm embarking on now— participating in the project management of financial inclusion initiatives to support smallholder farmers, women, and other underrepresented groups in Latin America! Intern Colombia, I'd say, was my trigger to really start a career in international development.

I've really enjoyed my entire experience here, both during my work and outside it as well. I've had so many cultural experiences that I couldn't get if I hadn't come here and they've definitely broadened my horizons. I feel like my perspective on things such as poverty has become more worldly after getting to experience it firsthand. I've also had a lot of fun at work, getting to learn some new skills (such as learning about how their blockchain works and learning to write code/communicate with other people about it in a professional environment) and also getting to meet a lot of super nice people. I've really enjoyed the culture especially here in Medellín where the people are often more laid back and super friendly! That warmness is something I'll be taking with me wherever I go because it really goes a long way to helping me feel welcome here.

The one thing I would complain about is how unresponsive and disorganized the administration of Intern Colombia can be - getting a response out of Matthew could take several repeated emails and weeks. He didn't even send us the information packet with a lot of important info until the day before we arrived here. He has also provided the interns with inaccurate or incomplete information several times. Luckily, Natalia in Medellín is an excellent on-field program coordinator, so she became our main point of contact for anything Intern Colombia-related

I really loved the program and thought that it was smoothly run. I don't think I could've gotten this experience elsewhere. It was a very unique internship that I ever thought that I would complete. Also, I really liked the engagement from the Intern Colombia team, because they constantly checked in on me and helped me throughout the selection process. Very much enjoyed my experience-- it was with BritCham Colombia, which is a very cool organization to work for. Also got to improve my Spanish a bit. Thank you Intern Colombia!