Connect-123 Global Internship Programs Reviews

Right from the start I felt welcomed into my marketing internship experience. The first day I jumped right into hands-on tasks and learning the ins and out of the company. I was able to achieve a lot for the company and learned a ton of skills that I'm now taking with me to look for a career.

I have learned a lot through my internship, but also through the city I have explored and the people I have met. Highly recommend! The staff is awesome and the people are so friendly. I truly enjoy going to Connect events, as well as my internship. I wish I didn't have to leave so soon!

My work place was walking distance from where i was living so every day i would be able to walk through beautiful Buenos Aires to my internship, and it is beautiful. My work place were encouraging of me getting around and seeing beautiful Argentina and therefore flexible with my work times. The work experience its self was really great. i was given trust and responsibility through my time there and felt like i was truly helping to make a difference. Everyone was so friendly and through Connect 123 i made some friends fro life who truly made the journey a wonderful one.

This is the first time I have travelled alone and lived in a foreign country. Connect 123 not only gave me such an amazing opportunity as a pre-med student to work with children at a public hospital but also helped me prepare everything I need (such as housing) before my arrival, picked me up and made sure I was comfortable when I arrived and met up with me during my stay to make sure everything is ok (you have a lot of freedom so it's not like they were constantly on your back). Katie and Paula, especially Paula, were so friendly, and helpful. Also you become really close with other Connect123 interns because there are a lot of social events when you are not working.

The biggest difficulty is the spanish. I knew basic spanish beforehand but in Buenos Aires, especially where I worked, no one spoke english and spoke Spanish really quick. It is definitely a challenge, but it forces you to really learn and speak the language. The people there are understanding and nice to foreigners as well. I worked every morning, weekdays. When I was not working, I explored Buenos Aires which is a very fun city and has a crazy nightlife. On the weekends/holidays I travelled Argentina.

This entire experience is a win/win. I gained valuable work experience in a hospital while learning another language, and also managed to travel and meet new friends from all over the world.

My experience with Connect-123 in Cape Town was absolutely amazing and the best 3 months of my entire life. I was terrified going to South Africa by myself and not knowing anyone, but Connect-123 made the transition into life abroad extremely easy and helped me get acclimated into my everyday life in Cape Town. Connect-123 offered lots of awesome events throughout the program that allowed us to see the real culture of South Africa and got us out and about in the city.

I've traveled quite a bit in other countries around the world and I have to say that other cities pale in comparison to Cape Town. Cape Town is my absolute favorite city in the entire world. The city is beautiful and sits nestled in the mountains and looks out to endless oceans. There is an endless list of fun activities to participate in while in South Africa. You can jump off the world's highest commercial bungee jump, shark cage dive, see exotic animals on a safari, go for incredible, breathtaking hikes and go surfing. It's the perfect place for anyone seeking an adventure.

On top of all this Cape Town has a fascinating, empowering history, which you cannot escape while living in the country. In addition to all of this, the food is incredible! I'm not kidding when I say I ate the best meals of my life while in Cape Town. Those who say you need to travel to Italy to eat amazing food, obviously have not been to Cape Town. The city is filled with a vast variety of different restaurants and markets that are to die for! My roommates and I basically spent every weekend exploring the Old Biscuit Mill market.

In terms of my work experience in Cape Town, Connect-123 set me up with the most amazing internship! I loved going to work every day and I felt I gained incredible hands-on experience. My internship was in the exact industry I want to pursue a career in, so it was seriously-spot on! Also, my co-workers in Cape Town basically became my family there. They were fully invested in making sure I was situated and enjoying my time in Cape Town and at work. At the end of my internship, I was offered the opportunity to continue writing for their global website once I headed back home. My internship in Cape Town will without a doubt help me professionally in my future.

If you are debating whether or not to take advantage of an opportunity of going abroad, I can not stress enough how rewarding and life-changing an experience like this can be. No matter where you want to go, travel opens up many doors and helps you see the world in a different perspective. My experience in Cape Town has definitely opened my eyes and I'm already looking forward to my next adventure, wherever that may be! Take a leap of faith and I promise you, you won't regret it!

My program experience was pretty good with Connect-123. The program lends itself to a lot of flexibility, depending on your preferences for what type of company or organization you would like to work. I appreciated that they went to great lengths to find an internship with an organization I liked and wanted to work for. I think the thing I was most unprepared for was living IN A CITY. Buenos Aires is HUGE. Coming from a background of suburbs and farmland, this was a huge shock to me and added to the stress of culture shock. I also was not prepared for the smoking. I had issues with people smoking in the house I was placed in, and Connect-123 was not very responsive to my complaints and requests to move housing. They said that I should have informed them of my severe second-hand smoke allergy. The one problem was this - ALL of the housing information I received from the program said their housing facilities are all non-smoking. If given this information, it seems logical to assume that I should not need to specify that I have a second-hand smoke allergy on my applications.
Apart from the smoking, the internship itself was great. I enjoyed working for the non-profit research organization where I was placed, including the people I worked with. The office was small, with only two other people working in my section, but I enjoyed the closeness with my coworkers and the ability to have open communication. However, I would say that I did get lucky in my placement. I spoke with a few other interns in B.A., and some of them were not happy with their placements because their bosses wished they had had a better/higher understanding of the Spanish language. Connect-123 says that it's okay to participate in their internships even if you don't know the native language of the country you're traveling to. Personally, I would recommend not looking in Buenos Aires if you're not in any way familiar with the Spanish language or only have an intermediate level. I was lucky enough to have a boss mostly fluent in English, but others on this program were not so lucky, and this definitely affected their overall experiences.

The Social Entrepreneurship program with Connect-123 was nothing of what I expected to say the least. The first thing I learned is that you can't guess what the experience is going to be like until you get out there and do it. Learning business in the class room is one thing, but getting into the real world and facing real challenges is another. Through the program's real life experiences coupled with the classroom training, I feel much more prepared to enter the business wold for myself than ever before. The guidance I received along the way gave me the confidence to take on business ventures without fearing being left out in the dark. If you have any interest in going into the business world, I would definitely recommend spending a semester in Cape Town to prepare yourself to face the challenges the world has to throw at you.

My time in Cape Town with Connect-123 was more than I could have ever asked for. With an easy transition to Cape Town Life, I found a new adventure everyday and it was wonderful having many other interns around to share the experience with. Whether it was hiking, shopping, going on evening outings there was never a shortage or things to do or people to do them with. Connect made it so easy and accessible for me to get comfortable by walking me to work on my first day, setting up evening activities, and being very available and responsive to any questions I had along the way. Overall my Cape Town and Connect-123 experience were both unforgettable and taught me so much about myself and about South Africa. From making friends to learning exactly what I want to do with my perfectly matched internship everything was perfect when it came to my time spent in Cape Town. I can't wait to make it back soon to the Mother City soon and thanks to Connect-123 for making me fall in love with it.

I needed an internship in finance. I was provided the opportunity to work for Spain's 4th largest bank and reported directly the Deputy CFO.

They suggested a living arrangement in an Erasmus residence. I lived with two people from France, two from Bulgaria, one from Venezuela, one from Amsterdam, one from Italy and another from America. The amount of cultural knowledge and fun I had in that apartment will never be matched again.

Connect-123 walked me through using the public transportation system to get to work, setting up events to meet other people interning and was always available for on-call questions.

A normal Friday was finishing a day of work, heading to the market to pick up fresh seafood, taking a siesta, cooking or heading out to eat, heading home to get ready for the clubs, staying out until 4:00am (beach/discotheque), napping for a little, then deciding which beach to head to in order to get some real sleep and eat mussels and patatas bravas upon waking up.

Fifty years from now, when you are (hopefully) peacefully retired in the place of your dreams, reflecting on your past experiences, your education, your work, your family, the friends you have made and the friends you have lost, the places you have visited and the places you will never see, what do you think will come to mind?

In my mind I will picture Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain in the summer of 2014 and the blessing of my colleges's International Studies summer fellowship. I will picture my internship at an organization that actively fought to eradicate the housing and economic crisis that began in 2007. A crisis which, in Spain, resulted in the forceful eviction of thousands from their homes, left thousands more indebted to the banks for life, and even led some to take their own lives. I will picture myself, a 22-year-old university student from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee who at first struggled with language and communication, constantly stressing over research, work and cultural awareness, but who quickly adapted to an intimate work environment, becoming truly comfortable with immersion, and able to have the opportunity to contribute personal, meaningful, and useful work to the fight for housing rights in Spain. All this, still being able to have an unexplainable amount of fun and adventure within the city of Barcelona, around Spain, and throughout North Africa and Central Europe.

Lea and Steve Levy, and the rest of the team at Connect-123, gave me the tools I needed to make my experience in Barcelona not only a memory I could happily look back on 50 years from now, but also a contribution to the city that will forever have an impact on the livelihood of its citizens. Without the help of Connect-123, I would have never been able to be placed at an organization that fit my exact interests and aspirations for a summer internship abroad, particularly in the field of protecting constitutional and basic human rights. To anyone who hopes to look back on their time abroad with a sense of accomplishment, personal growth, and unmatchable happiness, Connect-123 is the way to go. 11 out of 10.