Program Reviews

As my time in Spain is quickly coming to an end, it has made me reflect on my time abroad and appreciate all the memories I have made. For some context, I am doing a computer science internship in Seville, Spain, from January to May. When I first came out, I took 2 weeks of Spanish classes, which were fantastic. These classes quickly helped me make some friends and get used to living in Spain. After these classes, I started my internship at PCPaco, which was a fantastic experience. It was exactly the role I wanted for my career, teaching me tons. They also helped me explore more of the city and learn about all the holidays. I think that my favorite part of Seville is the people. Everyone I have met out at clubs and in general has been extremely friendly and patient. Admittedly, my Spanish was not amazing starting out, but everyone was patient with me and quickly helped me learn. I also have never felt so safe in a city this big. Walking home from clubs, the streets are always lit, and I never felt unsafe. Overall, 10/10 experience, and I definitely would recommend it to anyone wanting the experience of living abroad.

To begin, I really enjoyed my time in Seville and I don't regret this experience. That being said, there were of course positives and negatives that others should be aware of. Starting with the good, Seville is a beautiful city with great nightlife and many sights to see. The people that I worked with from my marketing internship at the partner school, Spanish Institute for Global Education, were friendly and I always felt I could ask them any questions. I created lots of content for the social media, designed various promotional materials, and gained experience of what it's like to work in marketing. I also was able to travel on excursions with the school and had time to explore around Europe on my own. Now for the negative, my first internship I was contracted to pulled out once I was already in Spain. I ended up doing social media marketing for the school, so I did not experience the Spanish immersion that I had hoped for. I lived in an apartment with other English speakers, and my internship only had me come in two to three days of the week. I made friends with the students at the school, but they were all English speakers as well, and I didn't know how to meet Spaniards my age to help me be immersed. I would recommend staying with a host family so you have to speak in Spanish. With the housing, the apartment was generally nice, but my room had no window to the outside, it opened to the laundry room. There was also a smell of mildew from the bathroom that would never go away. It was just bad luck of where I was placed. I still appreciate the knowledge I gained here and the experience of living among a different culture.

I enjoyed my time in Madrid tremendously. The food, weather, culture, language, architecture, was all amazing. I learned so much about myself and the world around me. I got to spend a lot of time alone and it gave me a lot of perspective! I highly recommend choosing Madrid to do an internship, after four months of staying there and also traveling around to other cities in Europe, Madrid was by far the best. It was a great way to immerse myself in an unfamiliar place like I did. It was far out of my comfort zone, but well worth it.

I had an amazing experience accessing my programme in Madrid through this service. They were professional, supportive, and made the whole process smooth, from placement to visa support. Working with a company in the heart of the city gave me real-world experience and helped me grow both personally and professionally. The language practice component was also super helpful in building confidence and fluency. I’d highly recommend this program to anyone looking to combine work experience with cultural immersion.

My experience in Seville was truly one of a kind. As a marketing intern at the Spanish Institute for Global Education, I worked on real world projects like social media planning, content creation, and outreach strategies. What made it unique was the balance between professional learning and cultural immersion. I improved my Spanish, explored stunning cities like Córdoba and Málaga, and made friendships that crossed borders.

Future participants should know that this experience goes beyond the internship. It is about stepping out of your comfort zone, embracing a new culture, and growing in ways you never expected.

I signed up for Adelante Abroad as a way to have an immersive experience as an adult in my late thirties. I had previously spent three months living in Granada at an intensive language school, and this time I wanted something that felt more like truly living in the language.

Adelante did an excellent job placing me in an internship. I'm in the process of transitioning from a career in tech to nursing, and they arranged a three-month hospital shadowing experience that was exactly what I was hoping for.

Where Adelante fell short was in the housing placement. From the start, I clearly stated that I wanted a deeply immersive experience—that I wanted to engage as much as possible with the Spanish language and culture. My first homestay placement did not meet this expectation. The couple treated hosting as a business arrangement and more or less avoided interacting with me; we even ate in separate rooms. They also had another room open for foreign students, which was not disclosed to me.

I requested a transfer and, given the short notice, accepted housing with another student from the U.S. Unfortunately, we had very different expectations. I was committed to speaking only Spanish, while she assumed everyone would speak to her in English.

Adelante never mentioned that the homestay option might include sharing housing with other foreign students. Had I known, I would have found my own housing. I strongly recommend that, going forward, Adelante be more transparent about housing options. They should offer an option for applicants who are serious about language immersion to request a homestay with a family without other foreign students. I would have gladly paid more (within reason) for a full immersion experience.

My experience was wonderful. Met lots of nice people, trained really hard, figured out how to be an adult here, improved my Spanish dramatically and did some very fun trips along the way.

The communication from Adelante was a bit disappointing as I thought I had an idea about what I was doing when coming to Uruguay, but once the internship started it wasn’t what I expected. I wouldn’t recommend another sports internship in the world of combat sports due to it being very hard to have real responsibilities as a sports assistant.

I had the pleasure of staying in a home in Oaxaca and fully delving into my creative side, which improving my Spanish. I had the chance to paint a wall mural, which led me to painting a chilaquiles vendor in the local park. I also designed and illustrated for multiple companies, with the freedom to work where I wanted and on my own schedule. Oaxaca was magical, and I made so many friends who I still keep in contact with. Other than doing lots of art in Oaxaca, on my own time, I took 2 cooking class, a woodcarving class, did yoga weekly, got a Mayan massage, travelled to many surrounding towns, and so much more.

I spent the summer in Barcelona shadowing psychologists at an assisted living residence. My coworkers were kind and helpful, and the patients were charming and sweet. The local program advisor was very helpful to me and my friends in the program anytime we needed anything. I also completed 2 weeks of Spanish classes prior to my internship. My Spanish improved tremendously, as did my professional skills. I feel that this program exceeded my expectations and helped to prepare me for a career in psychology. In addition to this, Barcelona was just an incredible city with so much life and character--I never ran out of things to do or places to see.

Okay so the first thing I can testify to is that Adelante Abroad is absolutely legit. My biggest fear with these things are being scammed-Adelante Abroad has been professional the whole way through. The interview process is quite smooth and the contacts are timely and very sweet. No disputes about money or any hidden fees or anything like that. They are also very affordable considering what other programs charge which is another reason I picked them. I like that they're not affiliated with any sort of university, they're a unique way to study abroad after college-an experience I always wanted but wasn't able to do until now! I also really love their flexibility-for the internship program you can pick how many months you want to intern, and they tailor the program to you. One bit of advice I would give is if you're picky about the sort of internship you want to do to be as involved as possible in the process, and respond timely to their emails.
Something really nice they provide is a personal chaffeur from the airport when you land to where you'll be staying, which was so great not having to navigate foreign transportation after an international flight. Another thing they provided is two weeks of Spanish immeresion classes before your internship. Both of these things were included in the price.
For me personally, my internship was in Music in Madrid. I'm a singer and wanted experience in the business side of things. For my particular internship, a large part of the work I did was online, so I took advantage and traveled to Portugal, Germany, and Morocco! Mandatory events I had to be in Madrid were musical events, some of which took place in churches and castles. I got along great with both my boss and my roommate thank goodness. I was provided really nice accomodations with a working professional near a metro in a very safe part of town.
One thing I will say is this internship works well if you're very independent. They do not hold your hand and fill your schedule with things, so if you're very adventurous and free, like me,this program will be a good fit for you. If you want a set schedule with things constantly planned out for you, maybe not.
If you're looking for something legit and affordable in a Spanish-speaking country to boost your resume and travel, I would recommend Adelante Abroad.