Program Reviews

Hi, my name is Monica Coleman, I am a senior biology engineering student hailing from South Carolina, but I attend school at the North Carolina A&T State University. I chose this internship in dentistry because I am highly interested in the dental field. With being a student, it’s really hard to shadow with student hours, and I thought this internship would help me get a more in-depth view of dentistry.

There are plenty of highlights. I got to see lots of fascinating cases. Every day was different. I learnt so much. My doctor was very in-depth and explained a lot of things that were not clear to me before. So, I think I am leaving this internship with a lot that I didn’t know before, and I think it’s going to be very helpful in the coming years.

The coordination was great, everyone’s super supportive, you would always get help from your Cerca Abroad team, your doctor, the other interns, and everyone has been super supportive. Even in Athens itself, everyone is super nice, like- you’ll be fine.

The biggest highlight of Athens for me would be the food, like, everything is great. I have discovered souvlaki- it’s so good. If you come to Athens try the food, try the bakeries, there are coffee shops everywhere. That is so great. Everything about Athens is great. Its small, everything you need will be within distance, it’s a great city.

My name is Eniola and I am from Houston Texas and I go to college at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. I interned at IASIS in Greece and I choose this internship for many reasons. One reason was to get out of my comfort zone and immerse my self in Greece and to see how the psychological system is done here compared to the States and elsewhere. During my time here I have learned a lot, I learned different units, how they operate, for example the Fabric Republic and how they make cloths and distribute cloths for the community and also how they set up different sites for people to donate it, so its actually more of a community participating to help the community, which is very nice to see. I have really enjoyed my time here, I enjoyed the coordinators as they gave me a nice place to stay, which was very safe and they also gave me a map with tips which I was able to use to explore around, which helped my immersion because I was staying here for one month so having that really helped me get to it right out of the bat. Over all my experience in Athens Greece was amazing, the weather was nice, the people, the culture, the food was all just wonderful. I enjoyed my time here and I do plan on coming back here just here for the visits and just to go back to see all the sights that I wasn’t able to see.

Hi everybody, my name is Kjell, I am a student from Belgium, I am twenty two years old and I decided to go abroad with Cerca to visit this place- this one over here (Athens Medical Center Group)- in Athens. It’s been my pleasure to have been able to get a whole new experience with both my studies, the language and to go to run in this place. I’ve been here for about two weeks now and I have to say it has been very fun for me to experience, well, a whole new dimension of my studies. I got to see surgeries being done, patients while before and after the treatments and in this way it allowed me to grip or get a new view on everything I’ve been learning so far. I mean, it’s been very enjoyable.

Hi, I’m Ainsley, I am from Alberta Canada and I wanted to do a medical internship because I am really interested in going to medical school and the human body and just helping people in general.

The organization is great, they take you everywhere you need to go and make sure you know exactly where you are supposed to go or supposed to be doing. Organizing the accommodation, was perfect and made you feel less lost coming into a different country.

Athens is beautiful, it’s so clean, and everyone is so nice including the doctors. They want you to be involved and they talk to you and they are interested in where you’re from and who you are. It’s great.

Hi, my name is Maddy, I am from Utah, and I am a pediatric medical assistant. And I chose to go into the medical field because I love helping other people and this experience has been incredible. I’ve loved it everywhere, especially surgeries. I got to do orthopedic surgery down here and I loved it. I also got to go up to the nursing floor and would meet with some of the nurses which I also really liked.

This whole organization was really organized. They have picked me up from the airport up to my apartment. Everything at the hospital was organized too. I got exactly where I wanted to go and they were all very nice about it.

I love Athens, I love Greece, I will move here when I’m older- I love it so much. I went to Mykonos and if you go to Athens you have to go to Mykonos. Have a good weekend. I just loved the whole thing, I've loved everything about Greece.

Hi. I’m Ella Glover, I am from Coastal Carolina, I am a major in science, so that’s why I chose this internship. It’s allowed me to watch live surgeries, follow daily protocols. Personally my favorite surgery was a knee replacement since I am hoping to work either as a surgical doctor. Overall this experience went on very well. Everything was very organized. I always knew where I had to be. Well, Athens, I loved this city. It couldn’t have been a better city in order to experience this medical internship.

Hi, my name is Jessica Escobar and I am from Los Angeles, California. I did a medical internship here at the Metropolitan General Hospital. Overall the experience was amazing, I got to see so many different surgeries as well as being in many different departments that I wouldn’t have necessarily known about if I didn’t do it here.

I thought my highlights of this full experience were definitely being in the theatres downstairs, in operating rooms, seeing orthopedic surgeries as well as cardio surgeries, and neuro surgeries- they do it all here. It was amazing to see, witness, and even be able to scrap, in some surgeries.

Overall, the coordination through this program was amazing, from the airport pickup to even the drop off at your apartment with your fellow interns which honestly made it amazing. Because you aren’t alone, you have your interns that you have to work with every day and, other than that, you’re also in beautiful Athens. So there’s a lot to experience and see. Obviously all the tourist spots but it was nice for you to go with your roommates as well. So, go to work also have some fun. Overall this experience was amazing. Personally, I did it for medical school since I will be applying for the next cycle hopefully getting in. Meeting a bunch of top surgeons here has really elevated my medical application, so I would definitely be getting some letters of recommendation from multiple doctors here.

So, if you’re thinking about it, just do it. This program is amazing.

Hi, my name is Bri, I am a student at Coastal Carolina and I am a biology student and I want to be a surgeon. I came here because I wanted to gain personal experience I got to shadow a bunch of surgeries and a bunch of clinicals which has been so useful for what I want to do in the future. My favorite part was getting to watch a breast cancer tumor removal, since it’s exactly what I want to do, I got to see the whole process here and how it works. I thought it all went out very smoothly, I was where I needed to be and I loved Athens, my favorite part was the food. I would recommend it.

Hi there, my name is Ava and I am from Canada I am winding down my two-week experience here in Athens through Cerca Abroad. So, for the past two weeks, I have experienced a variety of different procedures, and materials in different ways, and just techniques to be good at expanding in four different degrees of cases as well as a variety of outstanding cases and sometimes very jaw-dropping cases.

Besides that, my experiences here have been phenomenal, the dentist and the entire staff here have had a lovely sense of humor, they’ve been extremely polite and I was encouraged to pose many questions. And the patients have always been coming in and out with big smiles on their faces and they’ve been very polite and very welcoming.

So, outside of the program, I’ve had the opportunity to experience coffee shops, as well as some breathtaking views from rooftops and sometimes even the other students were also too, so it’s all been a lovely experience. From start to finish you feel extremely welcome, you are well taken care of, it’s very smooth and fluent, and if anybody has any interest at all in the program I would definitely recommend it from start to finish it’s been a phenomenal experience.

I’m hoping to pursue a career in dentistry as well, it’s been my first chance to actually sit for a long period of time to shadow one dentist and it’s been a phenomenal experience. I would recommend it to anybody. If you are a little bit shyer this is definitely a really good place to start. Overall this has really heightened my experience and my ambition to pursue dentistry. And so, again, I would recommend the program to anybody.

Hello, my name is Joseph I will be 22 years of age at the 20th of April and I am currently studying a bachelor at mechanical engineering at the University of Oregon Australia. The reason why I am completing this internship is because I must complete twelve days of industrial training in order to graduate from my University in Australia and to finish my degree. I also really love travelling and so I decided to do both at the same time- travel and complete my internship. That way I experience the best of both worlds. I also chose this internship as I was really interested into the program it has to offer. During the first couple of weeks I had to familiarize myself with the mechanics, in a way to better understand their function and mechanical features. This was important as the main task of the internship was design of marine drones and then printing a model on the 3d printer. I also spent some time flying this drone in order to better understand the way they function. This is modelled in 3d printer. It was modeled through the use of software and printed with the 3d printer through the ?. My free time consisted of a wide variety of activities and adventures. I visited many beautiful and historical locations in the city. Then I went out to explore locations outside Thessaloniki such as Volos and Mount Olympus. During the second half of my internship I also had the time to visit Istanbul, Turkey for four nights. My accommodation was also very comfortable and safe and all my needs were attended through during the entirety of my intern. I didn’t exactly face many issues. However when I struggled with a task assigned to me, my supervisors would always attend to my needs and provide me with feedback and positive criticism. This helped me to ensure that I would complete my task with minimum obstacles and with great success. I would also like to thank Vassilis for being great mentors throughout this entire internship and also to thank the professors for their help when I needed it. Also a big thank you to Cerca Abroad for providing me with this internship opportunity.