Program Reviews

I have visited Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Granada on Spanish Immersion Programs and my time spent in Granada was by far my favorite. My host family in Granada was so welcoming; Bernarda and Cristobal were the best host parents. We ate delicious meals every day, and had great conversations about Spanish Culture and American Culture. My classes were good, they weren't quite as challenging as I had hoped, but also weren't a breeze. The University of Granada was a great place to study, and was only a 15-20 minute walk from my host families home. By far my favorite part about the trip were the people and the activities available to me. Outside of the great programed activities, my friends and I were able to find many other engaging things to do in the city. Granada is super pedestrian friendly and whether we were just walking, shopping or visiting museums, I always felt like the city had something new to offer. Alejandro and Rocío, our two program directors were extremely helpful in dealing with any sort of problem that arose and were great tour guides throughout the city. Rocío's knowledge of the area made my experience feel super authentic and Alejandro's passion for history translated into our visits. I would highly recommend participating in the SOL Abroad summer immersion program, not only for the wonderful experiences in Granada, but also for the friendships that I have maintained months after leaving Spain!

This trip kept the group connected to the culture and landscape with amazing and a perfect amount of excursions. They always kept me engaged with the trip and I learned so much. But there was an amazing balance of free time too. The class I took was so interesting and the perfect amount of challenge. The directors were very accommodating and nice. The price of the trip was very affordable as well.

I had the best time of my life in Costa Rica. Two weeks gave me the opportunity to visit many national parks, local shops/supermercados, and to learn about the culture outside of a touristic view. I definitely am already planning on my return trip back.
Future participants, make sure to bring clothes for every season. If you plan on being adventurous and love to enjoy natural beauty, hiking at one of the many local parques is always possible.
The food is fresh and locally grown, so do not hesitate to try a local tican-meal. My experience was unique in that I had free-time to go to the pacific ocean for the first time in my life. If you love animals, you can get within a few feet of sloths, iguanas, and monkeys!

Sol's summer healthcare course in Buenos Aires is absolutely incredible! Staying with a host family is an amazing way to get immersed in the culture, as is attending all of the scheduled activities. Raul and Rodrigo take you to so many cool sights and are so supportive; not only teaching you how to navigate the city so that you feel confident commuting and exploring alone, but supporting you as you improve your spanish, meeting you at whatever level you are at, answering all of your questions and giving you tips. Go to all the Mate Club meetings that you can! They are a great way to practice the language, enjoy local cultural and meet cool portenos! And the medical shadowing was an absolutely priceless experience. For any pre-health students, the opportunity to see socialized medicin up close and personal and shadow so many different types of doctors and medical professionals, all while practicing your spanish, is simply unbeatable. Be sure to ask the doctors as many questions as you can think of! You would be surprised what you will learn.

I believe that the overall experience of Oaxaca was good. I understand that this was a school trip and that education and exposure to nursing in Oaxaca was important but I feel that going to the hospitals and doing the constant tours actually took away from my experience of the culture and over all life style of people who live in Oaxaca. I thought that Pricilla did an amazing job at exposing us to the culture and listening to our questions and giving us real life answers.My favorite part and where I think I learned the most was when volunteering at the shelter for families of those staying at the hospital. It really gave me since of what it was like to be sick or to have a sick family member in Oaxaca.

The whole experience was amazing! I learned so much on this trip and it really opened up my eyes. It has helped me appreciate everything in life. The program is really flexible which was really beneficial with our group. I think some things weren’t really organized and I felt like it got annoying at times because our group was basically the first group to do a week long trip. Positive note, the city of Oaxaca was just amazing. The people and the culture is amazing there.

I had a really great experience with Sol in Oaxaca. Learning the history of the state alongside our lectures on healthcare was very complementary, and the way they married traditional lectures with interactive experiences was very impressive, and I appreciate the ability to see many facets of both the public and private systems. The staff (Ena and Priscila) were absolutely FANTASTIC. While the program I was on was short, I would do it ago without hesitation.

Overall, I think that this trip was really great! I really enjoyed the trip because we not only did things like learn about the culture, visit and learn about the healthcare there, but we also did touristy things to make the trip even better. I also really enjoyed the group that was there: including the professors, the group coordinators, and all of the attending classmates. What I disliked the most was how much forced group activities we had to do. Sometimes I just wanted some space and independence, and more free time to do this would have been very welcome. However, this being my main dislike is minimal. Thank you for creating such a great abroad experience for me.

This trip was great! I love exploring the city of Oaxaca in ways that I would never have had the chance to without this trip. Ena and Priscilla were excellent at planning great activities for us and being translators/tour guides for us, and by the end of the trip, we were all really great friends. I loved being able to tour hospitals and clinics around the city and communicate with the people who live there. It definitely gives me a different perspective of healthcare and makes me feel very fortunate for the resources we have available to us in the US. I would definitely recommend this trip to anyone in the future!

Loved the tour guides and all who were involved making this trip happen. they were all so educated about the area, and worked extremely hard to go above and beyond when taking us to new places. I know this was their first time working with a group of nursing students, but i honestly feel like they had done all of this before. I loved getting to share our knowledge of the nursing world with them, and then getting to share their knowledge of the world with us! I really have no complaints besides the minor miscommunications that took place. (which were more so our fault)