Program Reviews

I had an amazing time volunteering with Maximo. This trip to Antigua was a once in a lifetime experience and I have loved getting the opportunity to help less fortunate communities. With the help of Jorge and other leaders, we traveled to many communities throughout the week and experienced the unique conditions that others were faced with. Throughout my time I got to practice Spanish with individuals and work to improve living conditions for those in need by distributing medical supplies and services.

This experience has been life changing!! I have learned such much about the culture here and can’t wait to share with family and friends. I hope we have helped to make a positive impact here. Maximo made this process easy. Starting at the ride to our host family to coming with us on volunteer days! Kevin was amazing and so helpful! He truly is great at his job. I would recommend this to many people! Wendy’s house is also so beautiful. She is so sweet and caring to everyone she welcomes! Thank you again!

My volunteer experience, although too short, expanded my world view and brought growth and a deep appreciation for the local community here in Antigua. It was stretching but so rewarding to serve the older generation in a small way during my time here. The local staff were incredibly helpful and welcoming, especially as my Spanish was limited. They went above and beyond in ensuring my group had the support we needed, recommending local places and traveling with us to our first volunteer placement. I would highly recommend Maximo Nivel as an organization to volunteer with!

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience volunteering with the elderly people in Guatemala! I wish I could have stayed longer. I would highly recommend to anyone volunteering with the medical program to take Spanish classes before coming to volunteer, as well as trying to stay for more than one week in order to follow up with certain patients. Either way, any amount of help you can provide is much appreciated by the community. Shout out to Kevin for being an incredible help with translation and showing us around the city. Thank you so much to Maximo Nivel and our host family for the amazing experience.

I did Maximo Nivel's course online and found this to be a very comprehensive and at times challenging program. It is well-organized and structured and I received a good foundation to do the work. There is homework and exams along the way that keep you on track. There are lots of examples and helpful videos to help with the learning process. Sean was very helpful and gave me valuable feedback. He was very nice to work with. This is definitely the way to go if you want to receive excellent TEFL training.

Jessica was wonderful! I loved every second in Guatemala and especially teaching through volunteering. I am a better teacher but really a better person because of volunteering. The students you work with are a reminder the world is still good. To future volunteers - embrace every part of it and make as many memories as you can! Definitely take advantage of the travel opportunities after work to learn more about Guatemalan culture. If you do Lake Atitlan I highly recommend Jose! The coffee farm tour was very informative and it gives you the ability to support local farmers. I also got to practice my Spanish. I can comfortably put bilingual on my things now. Thank you Maximo for everything and I hope to come back soon!

Máximo Nivel was very organized, and all were very friendly and helpful. We were able to get to the casa de huespedes easily, and the host Silvia was great and a very good cook!! The location was super and made it easy for me to figure out the buses and the route to Jocotenango. The school was very welcoming, and the English teacher, Ileana, was very nice and quickly involved us in her classes! Meanwhile, Kayla was a great support and made sure we were comfortable and moving forward throughout the week!

All in all, a great experience!!

I completed my online TEFL course a few days ago and I can confidently say it was an outstanding learning experience! A huge thank you to my trainer, Sean Barter, whose patience and expertise made the difficult parts of the course easier to comprehend. Sean was always available to give feedback, support and answer questions. I chose this course because it offered 5 hours of practical teaching, 10 hours of coaching via zoom, detailed ESL modules and so much more! I didn`t know if I had made a right decision or not, when I signed up, but as soon as I opened the first module I was pleasantly surprised- it turned out the course was informative and engaging, covering all aspects of teaching English as a foreign language and exceeding my expectation. I would highly recommend it to anyone considering a TEFL course!

A definite, need to do the course, and a great place to do it. the TEFL course was a really difficult course, never thought learning to teach my native language would be so difficult.

The teachers and course format were excellent. Maximo Nivel has a fabulous, friendly, helpful staff and a great swimming pool . Free coffee and tea all day from the snack bar, Costa Rica is roasting hot in March, and you have to know the homestays are not air-conditioned, the classroom, however, has a new air conditioning unit, which make are the hard work a bit more bearable.

My tutor, Wayne, was excellent throughout the entire course and helped massively in getting us to the finish line. It is a very difficult program, but the benefits of the hard work become clear towards the end. Everyone involved was absolutely lovely and great to talk to. The structure of the course is also great, moving methodically through grammar, teaching experience, eliciting skills etc. Overall, although tough, it is very rewarding and taught almost flawlessly, so I would certainly recommend this program.