Program Reviews

I certainly enjoyed my time in Chile and am grateful that I had to opportunity to go, but the program left a lot to be desired. My main complaint is that that the academics were very poor. The academic director changed a year ago so any reviews from before then don't accurately represent the current program. While the academics weren't hard, we were usually stuck in class until dark so we didn't have any time for anything else. Most days we passively listened to lectures all day with no opportunity to discuss, analyze, or synthesize what we were being told. Especially because everything was in Spanish, it would have been very helpful for comprehension to discuss the material. We voiced this to our academic director several times but nothing changed. I honestly don't think he has any idea what a discussion-based class looks like, let alone how to lead one. The "intensive medical Spanish" course usually consisted of playing games or walking around town, which was fun but didn't teach me any Spanish, especially medical Spanish. I honestly had more rigorous Spanish classes in high school. Finally, it was also hard to become part of the community, get any exercise, or explore the city because we were in class from about 9:00-1:00 and 3:00-7:00 every day and the schedules were always changing last minute. I had to go out of my way to make friends with some Chileans, and this proved to be the most rewarding/fun part of my whole experience. Again, I really did enjoy my time in Chile, but feel like SIT did not deliver the program that it promised and would encourage you to sign up for a different SIT trip.

To this day I am still learning from the experience I had in 2013 with SIT Nepal: Tibetan and Himalayan Peoples as it continues to shape my future. They threw us into the culture, taught us how to think critically and developed our skills of non-invasive and collaborative research (also travelling to India and carrying out extended fieldwork in Bhutan). The individual Study Project (ISP) truly lets you flourish your interest, while the faculty does their very best to help you achieve maximal learning, while staying rooted. My current path and career are positively influenced by this program and its expert faculty. Furthermore, this program has it all: Adventures, deep cultural integration, mystery, unbelievable sightseeing and the development of you as a student. I recommend this program whole heartedly and am thankful to the entire program faculty.

Hadi El Rabbat (Egypt)
SIT Nepal: Tibetan and Himalayan Peoples (Spring 2013)

The SIT Nepal: Tibetan and Himalayan Peoples program is a unique program that offers a tremendous amount of opportunities for students with a variety of academic and personal interests. In addition to general coursework in Tibetan language, research methods and ethics, and content seminars often in the form of lectures and discussions with local experts, the month-long independent study program was an incredible undergraduate research opportunity. Students on my program pursued such disparate interests as geo-tourism development, Tibetan Buddhist ritual, women's health, climate change, traditional handicrafts, creative writing, photography, local cuisine culture, refugee issues, education, and many more. This program truly is student-centered and allows for all participants to deeply pursue their own interests in a unique setting in the foothills of the Himalayas. Moreover, the excursions give students the opportunity to explore other Himalayan and Tibetan areas throughout Nepal, India, and Bhutan.

Speaking from experience, you don’t need a significant background in South Asian studies or philosophy to gain a lot from this program. Nepal is rich with cultural diversity and I was constantly in awe of its natural beauty. It has something for everyone, and the staff is SUPER supportive and knowledgable. With the help of SIT staff, students were able to connect with locals, and I gained wonderful Nepali friends that made my time there even more special. My homestay family became like my actual family. Course instruction was really grounded in anthropology and gave me a much more informed framework for understanding cross-cultural interactions and international travel. The excursions that the program provides were a huge highlight because we got to travel to remote places and gained experience in anthropological methodology and interviewing skills. These helped prepare me for the independent study month, during which I designed my own project with the help of SIT staff; it gave me a fascinating opportunity to learn about my career interests in a particular Nepali setting. I gained so much knowledge, confidence, and cultural awareness, and I am constantly talking about my experience in job/internship interviews. This is an incredible program!!

I had an incredible, life-changing experience at SIT Mongolia. I decided to go on a whim, thinking that I wanted to experience something totally different from my life in the US; it turned out to be one of the best, best experiences of my life. The SIT Mongolia program is extremely well-run, and the teachers take you all over the country to explore. We visited the Gobi Desert in the south, a mining town in the North, the birthplace of Genghis Khan, and many other places. We had adventure after adventure. One of the best parts was staying with rural nomadic families: helping them herd, playing with the kids, helping them milk yaks, and playing cards. I also had a great experience doing my Independent Study Project. I studied trophy hunting, so I got to travel out to the west and interview hunters, as well as talking to government officials in the capital. The teachers offered great support throughout the process. Finally, I made truly incredible friends among my classmates. We had so, so much fun, and I'm so grateful for this experience.

The majority of my classes up until I took this program were in psychology and sociology. I am passionate about better understanding the complexity of human beings and how such understanding can be used to promote change. This program was an incredibly rich entry point for me into the world of activism and dialogue through art, something which had been missing from my studies. So many thoughtful and haunting uses of imagery. I highly recommend you look for examples of the work of Lucila Quieto for one example of the powerful work you will encounter (link at bottom). The experiences of meeting her in person, along with several other artists and collectives, were indispensable. You will not be just reading about subject matter but encountering it in places where the Dirty War was carried out, talking with survivors, and meeting grassroots organizers. Partly due to inspiration from this program, my senior thesis will be tying theory (ecofeminism and ecopsychology) with its illustration in the work of female artists, including Latinas Laura Aguilar and Ana Mendieta.

My homestay family was very friendly and accommodating - one of my favorite days was going out with them and strolling through the historic districts of La Boca and San Telmo. Tango in the streets, colorful buildings, open courtyards, markets, nooks and crannies with old cafés and vines creeping around store entryways. As the warm afternoon light gave way to night and the colored lights of the Plaza de Mayo, my homestay mother telling me the history of so many buildings, I became truly immersed in the atmosphere of Buenos Aires.

My semester abroad in Argentina with SIT was a pivotal period in my life. The people, the mix of cultures, and the sense of adventure all caused me to fall in love with the country. The structure of the program taught me so much about public health in Argentina. We were exposed to top specialists, traveled to different provinces, and engaged in various projects that left room for personal enhancement of our lecture content. Additionally, by traveling to other provinces outside of Buenos Aires, we were able to not only interact with the material we were learning, but also prepare for our independent internships or research projects. I believe that it is because of this that I as able to be successful and completely enjoy my time with the Red Cross Argentina. It is important to note that the quality of the program staff, really makes the program. I have studied abroad three times during college, and I have yet to encounter a program staff so genuinely loving and concerned with the welfare and enjoyment of their students. Go, go, GO!

I cannot even begin to explain the numerous ways in which this program changed my life… seriously I have a SIT Nepal story for practically every single occasion and find a way to bring up how much it changed my life frequently. If you want a dynamic study abroad program that will set your life up in remarkable ways beyond what you even could expect, this is the program. I wanted to do a program very different than my peers all in London/ Australia, because that really SHOULD be the point of study abroad and wow did I get that. The program excursions change every semester so when you apply there is no real way of knowing what you will get up to that semester. We took two airplanes and a helicopter to the Tibetan border to most remote area in the country in the far west and then went on a 2 week walk/ trek where we stayed in villages in the middle of the Himalayas. How many study abroad programs do you know where you could potentially be on a helicopter?? It also means that unlike other programs where you follow a set tourist trail, you truly are going places in many cases for the first time. People are still excited to engage with you and learn with you. Additionally with the independent research project, I was incredibly daunted going into it, but it ended up being one of the most eye opening and rewarding things I’ve ever done. I never considered myself a “research” person, but it all changed with this. I gained so much self confidence in my ability to get to the bottom of stories and write about them. We all did! The staff is fantastic. The homesteads are fantastic. The SIT house is a little piece of heaven with a garden and fresh food every day. I have traveled a lot in my life but can hands down say this was my most memorable, unique experience ever. If you love adventure, the unknown, an incredibly unique cultural experience, and having experiences that no one else in the world really will get, this is the place.

PS I think the "fun" descriptor is very misleading here. You're living with homestays so you aren't going out to the club every night (although you can do that on the weekend). It is fun in the fact you are with an incredible cohort of kind, curious people that you can sit at cafes by Buddhist stupas talking about life while monks complete their kora beneath you. But again, this is a fully unique experience! It was nice to take a semester off of college shenanigans and engage in these meaningful relations instead. These people became my best friends. I have seen them in Bangkok, Chicago, New York, and am even doing a Fulbright back in Asia with one of the girls I met there.

If you're a pre-health student, this program really allows you the opportunity to explore not only health systems from within the classroom, but also at the institutional level. I was able to shadow physicians and social workers, travel all around the country, and meet wonderful mentors. Each of the program coordinators and mentors were so loving and helpful with my transition to life abroad, and I felt like I could come to them with any problems. The only thing that I would have liked to had more of in this experience is greater freedom with time. The program was highly structured, which was useful at the beginning of the program, but it would have been nice to have more time to explore the city without those long class hours. Overall, I would definitely go back!

This trip is super important for Americans, especially those unfamiliar with the history of the US in Latin America (as I was). It was illuminating, not just about Argentina's last dictatorship, but similar occurrences in other Latin American countries, as well as the history and sociology of the country itself (i.e. the lack of black Argentinians, marginalization of indigenous groups, etc). This trip is an opportunity to learn history, grow as your wrestle with difficult truths, and have sooooo many empanadas! Global positioning is also something we had to confront as Americans, so it stretched us (me) in that way as well. I highly recommend it. I'm still writing about our topics and using my Spanish. I actually plan to return again and learn more.

Quick tip: the trip will be much more rich if you really brush up on your Spanish before hand.