Program Reviews

As I come to the end of my ten months abroad in Costa Rica, I cannot help but reflect on how transformative and eye-opening my experience here has been. Not only has my High School Year Abroad with Greenheart Travel helped me learn Spanish as a second language, but it has also exposed me to different lifestyles and customs. I have become more familiar with myself, as well as how I can use my new awareness of other cultures to work towards what I want for myself and the world around me. Through living with a host family, attending school in a small, coffee-farming town, developing friendships with local students, traveling with other exchange students from all over the world, and publishing monthly travel articles on the Greenheart Travel website, I have gained entirely new perspectives and experiences. Studying abroad has given me the opportunity to change the way I see myself and everything around me, and that it a gift that I will cherish and benefit from for the rest of my life.

My exchange to Germany was the best time of my life. My host family was amazing and I loved the small town I was in because I wasn't that far away from the city but the town was still small enough to make it feel like home. I really bonded with my family and now I consider my host sister just my little sister. Greenheart travel did a good job at answering all of my questions and I'm so thankful I was able to do this. I also got to go on a couple of trips with other exchange students which ended up being two of my favorite trips. I'm really glad they offered those trips to us because I loved being around thirty other people as social and fun-loving as I.

Five words I would use to describe an Exchange trip to Germany ( Deutschland):

1. Exciting
2. Busy
3. Transformational
4. Postive
5. Endearing

Without this wonderful experience, I would be no where near the place I am today. Germany is an amazing country with an abundance of opportunities for anyone looking to go on exchange. Whether you are into dancing, eating, exercising, socializing, etc. there are opportunities for you. From household to household, warm arms welcome you and generously invite you into their everyday lives. Its an amazing place to love and I would be super supportive of anyone looking to go abroad to Germany!

I had an amazing time in Vennesla, Norway for my senior year of High School! I lived there for 7 months and loved every second of it. I am five years out from this experience, but it is still affecting many of my decisions for life. I changed from business and agricultural career aspirations to politics and global research. I am currently working towards my Master of Public Administration at the University of Washington with a focus in International Development. My love for anything global definitely stems from this experience.
My favorite memory was going skiing with my host family in Hovden. I had only gone once before and it was a great bonding experience for us. I still have so many friends back there. I have actually been back in Norway twice since to visit family and friends. Norway has a special place in my heart and I would not trade this experience for the world.

When I first arrived to my family in Argentina, I was filled with anxiety and excitement.. Right off the bat, my host parents and sibilings made me feel apart of the family! The first weekend they had text all their family members and friends and invited them to a barbecue just to meet me! I felt extremely welcomed and was overjoyed from the pride me family had in having me as a foreign exchange student. With my fellow class mates, it was the same way, my brother had sent a group message to the class of about 20 inviting them to come to the park and to meet me and get a grasp on the life of person from the US. My foriegn exchange expirience was extremely fruitful and I'm grateful that this program placed me in a family that made me feel like I was home even away from home.

This was a very valuable experience for me not just because my Japanese language skills increased a lot, but also because I began to learn how to "adult"; namely, how to properly manage my existing amount of money that I had. My hosts were very welcoming and tolerant of my linguistic mistakes ( I made many ^^). This past summer was probably the best in my life, and I am thankful to my parents, my hosts, Greenheart, and the friends that I made overseas.

I reached out to Greenheart Travel following my return to the US after a year of teaching and traveling in Thailand. In that year, I had the fortune of running across a handful of Greenheart teachers. In the Land of Smiles, they were no exception; each of them were placed carefully, taken care of financially, and afforded constant support from their program managers. When it came time to move to Colombia, Greenheart was the obvious choice.

I was one of Greenheart's initial Fellows to teach in Colombia via their partner organization, Heart for Change. From the interview to the traveling, and the orientation to the placement, I was taken care of every step of the way. I taught at SENA Centro Agroindustrial in Armenia for six months and had one of the best personal and professional experiences of my life - one that I still draw upon in my career today. It was not always easy, dealing with language barriers and overcoming philosophical differences cross-culturally never is. Yet the strength of the partnership and the genuine in-country support was there to help whenever I needed it. By the end of the first semester, the TEC program was experiencing so much growth that they began to offer interviews for regional coordinator positions to program Fellows. By my 7th month in Colombia, I was speaking and working in Spanish, monitoring and evaluating program progress, and conducting professional development training for new Fellows. My career had begun to take flight.

Fast forward another six months and I was asked by Heart for Change and the Ministerio de Educación Nacional to manage the nation's first Colombia Bilingüe Immersion program. As Immersion Director, I was managing every aspect of Colombia's initial effort at capacity-building for 130 Colombian English Teachers, 25 Fellows and Regional Coordinators, and an entire hotel staff. None of this would have been possible without Greenheart Travel. Their commitment to fostering trust with their partners in Colombia and their high standards for program success streamlined the often difficult, transitional stages of teaching and living abroad. All Greenheart Travel programming, not just the TEC, is designed consciously and carried out with integrity by their entire staff. This is one of the best career advancement programs out there.

Greenheart Travel was excellent in both preparing me to teach in Thailand and in helping me get there! They are there for you every step of the way. At times I would start to have questions, and before I could even reach out to them there would be an email with the answer in my inbox! They really have the whole Thai/teach abroad system down, and were super responsive if I ever needed help with anything!

I have just arrived home after a year and a half in Colombia thanks to Greenheart. I can honestly say that Greenheart has gone above and beyond exceptions and support both before my placement in Colombia and during my time there. Their staff takes a personal interest in all of their participants, and they continually reach out and help all along the way. Reflecting on the Colombia program is hard because there are multiple organizations at work. Greenheart manages their side with extreme professionalism and care, but they often are working with other organizations that are less organized than they are. They are a huge reason that I extended my contract twice to stay longer. They have been a fantastic support in everything from providing grants for an English Olympics project I jointly planned to helping me sort out visa issues when it seemed like the process was confusing and not straight forward. I would 100% recommend traveling with Greenheart and would love to do so again! Big thanks to everyone at Greenheart Travel!

There is a lot I'd like to say about my experience with Greenhearts. I would like to first indicate that I do feel that the Greenhearts employees with whom I interacted have good intentions. I also believe that my experience is not indicative of all experiences with them. The most frustrating aspect of my experience have been due to disorganization with the partner organization in Colombia, Volunteers Colombia. However, at this point I can confidently say that my decision to travel with Greenhearts has been a complete failure for me. It has been one of the most frustrating and discouraging experiences traveling.

I applied to leave with a SENA position in 2017. In August of 2016, my boyfriend and I had both been accepted (a process that was confusing and, at points quite frustrating, as I was accepted and asked to submit my deposit or else be dropped multiple times before my partner had even had his second interview/was invited to join the program-an interview that didn't happen for a month after it was supposed to happen). Sometime shortly after submitting our deposits and committing to the SENA 2017 program, our Greenhearts recruiter informed us that there was a program beginning in early September that still had a few spots open. We were ready to go abroad and we agreed to leave on September 9th. However, a week before departing, after quitting our jobs and moving out of our apartment, we were informed that the program had been pushed back by 3 weeks. I spent a good amount of saving meant for travel on unexpected living expenses in the U.S. in that time and fronting the fee to change the flight. The new departure date was supposed to be October 2nd.

A week before October 2nd, we were informed that the program had been pushed back another week to October 9th (we fronted fees to change flights again). Then, a week before we were supposed to leave for this latest start date, we were told that the program had been outright cancelled. We were homeless, jobless, and we had eaten through a significant portion of our savings in the month we spent jobless in the U.S.

We felt that we didn't want to continue to trust Greenhearts to get us jobs, however, given the hole we were already in due to placing our trust in them in the first place, we felt our best option was to hope they got us different positions as soon as possible. They got my boyfriend a SENA position in Bogotá (not the city we were initially supposed to go to, but completely acceptable). They said that I would be working in one of their 'other' placements. This meant a private institution not affiliated with SENA. However, the position was one that Greenhearts' partner in Colombia, Volunteers Colombia had placed volunteers before.

We arrived in Bogotá on October 9th. My partner got his visa with no problem on October 10th and has mostly enjoyed his time teaching in a SENA center in Bogotá. However, my application for a volunteer visa was rejected by the visa office, despite the 10 hours I spent there over 2 days. And despite that there are already two Greenhearts/Volunteers Colombia participants already working at the same University with the visa for which I have applied.

The person assigned to support me at Volunteers Colombia told me that he would keep me updated as VC corresponded with the manager of the visa office about my visa. He said that if I couldn't get the proper visa, I could be reassigned to a SENA position (and sure to get a visa if in a SENA position). He informed me of meetings and letters, but that very little came of them. Recently, he said I could apply for SENA positions in early 2017 and would be sure to be placed in Bogotá. He did not outright say that they were giving up on getting me a position/visa this school year, but it has been a month. He strongly implied in my last correspondence with him that VC has given up on getting me a job/visa for this school year. This means that I quit my job in the U.S. and traveled to Colombia around 6 months before I will even get a chance to teach here in Colombia (as SENA 2017 classes don't start up until March 1st).

Without a visa before the end of the year, I will be required to leave the country in January when my tourist visa expires. I was assured before I left that if I wanted to continue teaching in 2017, I could renew my visa and not have to leave the country (as I cannot afford it since the unexpected joblessness and living expenses in the U.S. for a month). Also, without a visa, I will not have access to the health care I was promised with this program. I had canceled my health insurance in the U.S. beginning in December, as I had intended to stay in Colombia and teach next year. I now have to afford three additional months of health insurance with my provider in the U.S. which is not realistic on the stipend I am being paid.

I am out of money and patience. I feel like from the very beginning, I was treated very poorly by the Volunteers Colombia (Greenhearts' partner here in Colombia). I feel that it is only getting worse now that I am here. I don't think this is Greenhearts' fault, however, the non-profit with which they are partnered here in Colombia is a mess.

I would absolutely not recommend anyone do this program. Find a different way to apply for SENA if teaching adults appeals to you. I am so frustrated and feel very much abandoned by Volunteers Colombia.