Program Reviews

I feel bad about leaving this review but I wish people would have told me this before I went. Connect 123 in Cape Town will pressure you into living where everyone else lives and promises certain amenities they do not follow through with (gym, TV, constant roof access) and they will constantly come into your housing unannounced. Connect will drop you off at your first day of your internship but does not provide you with transport back, and I've heard many stories of people crying because they felt so lost about how to get back who were not in the safest areas. Two of my coordinators were absolutely lovely but often felt like the third one was treating us like children. Since I payed for this all completely on my own I often wondered what exactly the payment to Connect-123 was exactly for. Especially after leaving it took over 2 months for a letter of recommendation that was only 2 paragraphs. Overall, I learned so much from the experience but I would not go through Connect-123 again.

If your looking to go abroad as well as gaining experience in your field of studies then Connect-123 is the program for you! I went to Dublin Ireland in the Fall of 2016 and my time spent there will be cherished for the rest of my life. The staff is extremely helpful in finding an internship to fit your interests. In the time I was their I interned for both a publishing company and a radio station working on tasks like promoting, journalism and presenting. Along with working in your field, Connect-123 also offers various opportunities to network with other people in the program as well as others who cross your path on this amazing journey! Thank-You Connect-123 for making this dream of going abroad become a reality.

It’s my last semester before university graduation in March 2017 that I want to spend time to discover new things overseas. My case was so complicated at first due to my visa and others documents required (I was studying in Japan by that time), but thankful to Connect123 who made all those things became much more easier for me. With their quick response to my question and their professional of having intern abroad were the main part of assisting me to conduct an internship here in Barcelona.

Barcelona is an amazing city where you can definitely enjoy the stunning attractions during the day and go out to Spain’s best city for party at night. Not only beautiful architecture by Gaudi, but also its people who I would say very friendly and most easy-going people I’ve ever met. I always go somewhere by walking and get lost in different places which make me found another fact about this city, that’s it super cool just to get lost here because the hidden gems are everywhere just around the corner.

I really enjoy my time here, including the company where I conduct internship with is also incredible! Not even a second that I regret to come here.

During my gap year before starting as a freshman at Rice University, I interned for 3 months as a teacher’s assistant at a preschool in Buenos Aires. It was a super great experience: my Spanish skills improved tremendously, I gained valuable experience working with children, and I immersed myself in the porteño culture. My internship was certainly hard at times, mostly because of the language barrier between myself and the other teachers, I was enriched so much by getting to spend time with such adorable children.

Outside my internship, I loved taking classes at the language school Connect referred me too. The teachers there were excellent and I made friends with several of the other students there from Europe and the US. This was my first time living on my own, which presented some of the biggest challenges of my trip, but Paula (the program coordinator) was always there if I needed help. I like the way being a Connect intern provided me with a network of new friends to explore Buenos Aires and Argentina with. There were many planned activities us interns could join in on, but Connect was appropriately hands-off so that our experiences could be as unstructured as we wanted. We were in charge of shaping our own experiences. The highlight of my 3-month time in Argentina was the trip I took to Patagonia with some friends from Connect.

I would certainly recommend a Connect internship to anyone looking for an educational and fun experience that can be as structured or as free as you wish.

From a very young age, I dreamed of going to South Africa. Before summer would arrive, I would go to my parents, and show them brochures of student programs I had requested to receive in the mail, and of course -- every year their answer would be no. They thought I was too young and that South Africa was far too unsafe.

After many years, of trying to convince my parents, I finally decided that I would go to Cape Town the summer after I graduated from college no matter what -- even if that meant postponing my job hunting. Of course, my parents were not very thrilled. Like any parents, they had safety concerns and were worried about me finding a job after graduation. In hindsight, these should not have been worries -- since Connect123 provided me with work experience that has become a talking point in almost all interviews, and provided me with the knowledge and support to easily navigate Cape Town.

Overall, Connect123 was able to find me an internship that fit my interests and backgrounds to a tee -- something I could have never done had I gone through the application process alone. I worked at a startup where I also gained more of an insight into South Africa's booming entrepreneurial culture.

On the side, because Connect123 hosts plenty of students from all over, I was able to easily make friends and meet people who would be willing to explore Cape Town and the rest of South Africa with me. We abseiled down Table Mountain, hiked Devil's Peak, travelled through South Africa's Garden Route where we went on an elephant encounter and crept through caves. We organized a trip to Kruger, and I even explored South Africa's neighbor, Namibia.

All in all, if you are having some of the same concerns I was having before I left, my advice to you would be to just go. You will gain much more work and life experience than you will ever gain in two months' time.

I always dreamed of living in Barcelona, and being an architecture student, there was no better city to have this experience. I was hesitating at first, when applying to the connect-123 program, I was afraid to believe in it too much, to get my hopes up. Even after everything was set, I still didn't believe it was actually happening...And then, I was Here ! Here in Barcelona living the life I always dreamed of, and it turned out to be the best decision I have ever made! For me, this was not just an internship program, it was a life experience. I had to grow on so many levels and i can already tell that now, I'm a changed person. The architecture internship was better than I expected, I was working with a team of passionate people (small office, big projects & even bigger minds), I had the chance to experiment, to design, and i was trusted and given big tasks from the get go. Not speaking Catalan or Spanish made it harder for me to fit in within the social context of the office, it was challenging, but I managed to bond with every single one of my colleagues....and that was the hard part, realizing how much of an impact the people around you have on the quality of your experience. I was out of my comfort zone in every possible way, and I managed to adapt. Throughout my stay in Barcelona, I was in contact with the connect-123 office, I met some of them, they introduced me to other interns and made me feel like I was genuinely cared about. At the end, looking back at this experience, I can say that I truly LIVED in Barcelona, I walked every street, met so many people from all from so many places, worked till my eyes shut closed, danced till my feet hurt, sang at every corner, laughed and cried my heart out...it was one of the most intense periods of my life, I loved every second of it, and I will do it again in a heartbeat!

My time in Buenos Aires was one of the most rewarding experiences in my life. I had never traveled outside the country alone before coming to Buenos Aires, and Connect 123 gave me all the support I needed to thrive in this vibrant city. From setting me up at a home away from home to helping me navigate the busy streets, Connect 123 gave me the foundation for the incredible life I cultivated in Argentina for two months.
Coming to Buenos Aires, there was definitely a steep learning curve in regards to the dialect spoken here, but within a couple weeks, I was able to communicate successfully with the porteños. As I have been studying Spanish for years and have continued my studies in college, learning to adapt to the speaking style of the Argentines felt like an unbelievable accomplishment.
Moreover, the work I did at my internship was so rewarding. I worked on a joint project between two environmentally-focused NGOs, where I helped design and plan the construction of one of Argentina’s first natural swimming pools. While the majority of my research focused on the environment close to Buenos Aires, through my co-workers I learned a lot about the progress in the Green movement in various regions of Argentina and South America. From these two short months in Buenos Aires, I gained confidence in my Spanish-speaking abilities, enriched myself with the Argentine culture, and achieved more than I thought possible with my internship.

I had been in many hospitals, volunteering and shadowing but never actually participating. Connect 1-2-3 gave me the opportunity to participate which in my opinion is the best way to learn something. One day I was working in orthopedics and a common thing that would occur would be replacing the bandage on hip implant patients. As I finished putting the bandage on the woman started to cry and gave me a huge hug. I will never forget that moment solely because even though we didn't speak the same language, there are some things that are universal. I have never felt more helpful than in that moment. Experiences similar to this one make this program so unique because it gives you the ability to experience and form connections that would've been impossible in other ways.

Being a part of Connect-123’s internship program was one of my best decisions I have ever made. I had always wanted to travel to Europe, so to be able to do so while pursuing my career path was an incredible opportunity for me. Soon enough, I found myself in Dublin taking in the Irish culture and taking full advantage of my journey.
In Dublin, I got a fantastic internship at Systems Biology Ireland, which helps to design therapeutic and personalized approaches to cancer. I got to be a part of truly integral and prestigious research. I worked in a top-notch facility, both in a wet lab and in an office performing analyses on breast cancer cells. It was one of the greatest learning experiences of my life so far. My supervisors were incredibly patient and kind when it came to my experiences working with them and learning from them.
Yet, besides my internship, I was fortunate enough to have the weekends to take full advantage of all that Ireland had to offer. I was blessed to be able to travel around the country, seeing castles, cliffs, and countryside, while taking in the history of this magnificent place. I got to be fully immersed in the culture, which is something that was so important to me, especially being of Irish descent myself. This only added to my incredible time spent here. I am grateful for my summer internship with Connect-123, and it has been a wonderful life-changing experience that I will be forever grateful for.

I’ll start of by simply saying… what an experience! I started this crazy journey about 3 months before we actually took off to Dublin, and to be fair, I was a bit leery at first. I knew I would get an internship, but I was unsure how ‘customized’ connect 1-2-3 was going to be able to get. There’s a few programs out there that offer internship abroad programs, but I was a bit nervous that I had chosen the right one for me. However, all nerves went out the door the minute I began speaking with Lea and her team. They took the time to listen to exactly what I was requesting and continued to probe further to insure their plans matched up with my goals. The internship I accepted was one of the most rewarding job experiences I have had to date. Mainly because it wasn’t just some fetch coffee and run copies internship, but instead, one where I could actually gain real world experience and even put forth plenty of ideas on my own. My coworkers were extremely helpful, and my boss was someone I could go to any time for questions and was someone who I consistently learned from. It was very apparent that the connect 1-2-3 staff didn’t just match me with the first company they spoke to, but instead matched me with a company that they felt I would excel at….and they were right!

The other major part that made this such a rewarding summer was the family feel that you get from the people you meet in the Connect 1-2-3 program. Each individual is from a different part of the country or world, and as the summer progresses you have the ability to get closer and closer to people you would have never had the opportunity to meet before. This bond started from the first week we arrived in Dublin when we all attended a C123 event and carried on throughout the entire summer. It was so great being able to come back after a long day of work to an apartment complex where all of your new friends are staying and each of them have had a similar day to yours. The apartments we stayed at started off as nice campus dorms, but grew into a real community of individuals I can now call my friends.

The last thing I would like to add or share with anybody considering C123 is to just remember you get out of this experience just as much as you put in. Start off by communicating with Lea and her team as much as possible. This only helps them match you with the best company for you possible and will make you happier in the end. Once you get to your worksite, apply yourself and always be eager to take on new tasks or try new things. And lastly, attend as many Connect 1-2-3 events as you can. They already know the city you are in extremely well and the events are well planned, fun, and sometimes even more affordable than if you went without C123.

Wrapping up here, I would definitely recommend Connect 1-2-3 to anybody considering interning abroad and I couldn’t be happier with the service and experience I got from all those involved.

Cheers!
Brian