LITA

When I was planning my summer last year, I decided that I wanted to find an immersion camp to advance my abilities in Spanish. However, I wanted to make sure that this camp would be fully immersive and filled with other people with the same enthusiasm for language as me. That's when I found LITA.
From the very beginning, the LITA staff I met were welcoming, supportive, and friendly. After my initial meeting with Mari, along with an informal placement test of my speaking abilities, my excitement immediately grew.
This program is particularly exceptional due to its complex application process. In the application, you respond to a series of questions about yourself and your language abilities and aspirations. The most incredible thing, however, is the matching of a host family to a student! After you fill out a series of personal preferences, whether those be preferences on the number of siblings in your host family, pets, or even your food preferences, the LITA team finds the perfect family for each student through a complex vetting process (including meetings with Jordan and Mari, the leaders of LITA, and LITA liaisons within the individual towns). I, for one, loved my host family, and we still keep in touch, and we plan to meet again next year. Throughout my entire group, I did not find a single person who was unhappy with their host family and not sad to leave them when the time came!
One aspect of LITA that was particularly important to me was the fact that it was totally immersive. Even at the airport, where we all met before flying to Spain, we began to speak within our group in Spanish. Although it was difficult, the group monitors were able to help us whenever we needed it, whether that was in translation, grammar, or even just Spanish customs! LITA encourages total immersion at all times, bringing its groups to small towns in Spain (where the tourist and English-speaking presence is limited) and having each student live with their own Spanish-speaking host family. However, before this portion of the trip, there is a transition period in which the students and group monitors stay in another town and develop basic vocabulary, get accustomed to speaking solely in Spanish, and do various activities to bond and learn together. I found this particularly helpful, as it allowed me to establish a bond with my group while also making the transition to the immersive environment much easier (as I knew that I was surrounded by others who were attempting to learn Spanish, just like me).
Another wonderful thing about LITA is the fact that during the homestay (the time with students living with individual host families), there are still classes in the morning, during which we (the LITA students) were able to reconnect and learn, mostly through engaging activities such as a scavenger hunt through a nearby city (which required us to ask passerby questions in Spanish in order to find the locations of various pictures), a tour of an olive garden (followed by an olive oil tasting), and even an interview on a local radio show! And then, despite all of the activities of the morning, we were still able to spend the rest of the day with our host families, who had cleared their schedules for that time simply to accommodate us (for which I am forever grateful).
All in all, my short three week trip to Spain with LITA was a fun and meaningful immersion experience, and I hope to participate in this program again next year! I would definitely recommend this program to all eligible students who are avid Spanish learners and looking for an immersive experience in Spain that captures a perfect balance between language, history, exploration, connection, and fun!

LITA was a life-changing experience for me this past summer. I was a part of the 2024 South 5 trip. We started in Teruel, in eastern Spain where we spent the first week of the program connecting with our group members and leaders, and had activities with the community everyday to start practicing our Spanish and immersing ourselves in Spanish culture. This first week was designed very well to get us comfortable with each other in Spain. I remember my first full day, we went on a bike route through the beautiful Spanish scenery, then we had a guided tour through a bunker used during the Civil War, and finally we went to the beach where we had an amazing paella lunch by the water. This day had everything, from academic learning about Spanish history in the bunker, to enjoying Spanish food on the beach, to building time for all of us students to connect and have fun with each other on bikes and in the Mediterranean. This is how most days of the first week went. The bulk of the trip, though, was the middle where all of us spent three weeks living and connecting with host families in Andalucía. This was a transformative experience like no other. Not only was it a way to facilitate incredible language growth, but also a way to form deep connections with a family that lives their lives completely differently than you. I was able to build an incredible relationship with my host family. They welcomed me, provided me a place to sleep, food to eat, and all of that with a smile on their faces because they wanted to build that relationship just as much as I did. It was immediately obvious to me how much thought and care everyone involved in the program at LITA puts into selecting families that they know will not only provide a safe and comfortable environment for students, but also people that will be a good fit for each student. I am fortunate enough to say that my host family pairing was perfect and I am still in close contact with all of them and hope to stay in touch with them forever because of how connected I feel to them: I feel like a part of their family. During the homestay, our group leaders facilitated daily activities where we experienced and engaged with different parts of our homestay community. These were all good ways for us to connect with our host siblings through activity, and it helped bring all of the American students together. Those three weeks spent living with a new family completely in Spanish formed an "única" experience, the best single adjective in Spanish or English to describe it. It was truly special and the most impactful three weeks of my life bar none. The final week of the program was bittersweet because, instead of building relationships with group members to last the next five weeks, we had the end of our trip looming over us. The group leaders were aware of this though, and encouraged us to reflect on all of the goals we set for ourselves at the start of the trip and how we had met and exceeded them, and focus on making the most of our last few days. We had another series of awesome agendas and there was clearly so much effort put into organizing everything so that we really could make the absolute most of our time in Spain.

I really was fully immersed in Spanish during this program, both the staff and my homestay community were very welcoming and patient. It was hard at first, to adjust to the culture language, and new people, but everyone was understanding and I got comfortable in the community fast. We did a variety of activities, like hiking and talking to locals, learning more about Spanish History, or just hanging out and eating ice cream. Overall I improved as a Spanish speaker and learned a lot about Spanish culture, while also having a super great time.

Whatever you may be expecting of a language immersion program abroad, LITA provides, and so much more. My three week south trip dramatically improved my Spanish, exposed me to a new culture, and gave me life long memories of the people who impacted me. From cooking to swimming to hiking to biking, there really was so much to enjoy every day. This was all made possible by the LITA staff who carefully planned and organized all of our activities. The philosophy of the program can be felt so strongly. Rural areas really do offer the most authentic and immersive Spanish experience, linguistically and culturally. Being entirely in Spanish, it's true that the program asks a lot from students in that way. Once I accepted that challenge, I found myself speaking Spanish much more fluidly. I made mistakes, but every day I learned something new. I learned new words and phrases, but also new ideas. It was like tapping into a whole new side of myself; I learned so much just by being around my homestay family while they had casual conversations, and by engaging in their dinnertime debates. My homestay family was incredibly generous and welcoming. My "hermano acogido" showed me where we could play basketball, football, and go swimming in town. On the weekend, we took a trip to the beach, and another time, a day trip to the capital of Andalucía. They always prepared classic Spanish foods for me to try, and shared stories with me about their family history. It was cultural exchange at it's finest, and an experience I will never forget.

Coming back from LITA truly allowed me to see how much growth I experienced. I connected with so many amazing people from different parts of Spain and the US. Being immersed in another culture for three weeks while only speaking different language is an experience like no other. LITA was filled with so many incredible activities and you can find yourself doing things you never would have imagined. LITA allows you to discover and learn about so
many things from another community while also growing as an individual.