When I first started looking into internships for the summer, I feel as if I was playing it safe. Looking for opportunities near my house or at least in America. However, when I came across The Intern Group and then Intern Latin America, I thought when could I do this again? When I could I jump on a plane and get an experience people dream of? And that was how I decided to spend my summer working at a non-profit in Colombia.
When I arrived in Medellin, Colombia, you can say I was far beyond nervous. I had no idea what to expect, if I would meet people, what would happen if I did not like my job or my roommates. I am grateful that I loved my internship with Fundacion Juguemos en el Bosque. I am also so impressed that Intern Latin America made it such a smooth transition, I arrived and the next day I already had so much to do. Intern Latin America sets up events for all the other interns and these are the greatest thing, you meet the team, you meet interns who become friends, and you realize this experience and your time in a foreign country will be alright.
On the first day of my internship, someone from the Intern Group walked me straight to my office, introduced me to the organization. This does not happen in the real world, but having this for my first day was what I needed, it calmed my nerves knowing that I was not going to get lost, or that I would not show up and my job have no idea who I was. In my opinion, it was small things such as walking me to work, having intern events, and having a group of people who’s job is to make sure you are doing alright, and having the best possible experience you could have.
When I was first giving the information about the non-profit the intern group found for me, I was very skeptical, simply because I did not find this, I did not know what the organization stood for. Nonetheless, Intern Latin America could of not done a better job. Everything I wanted in an internship I was given. I wanted to work with the social worker and have field experiences with the kids, but I also wanted to work in the office. I wanted to enjoy my summer, but I absolutely loved it. The best thing about my summer was my job, was going to work everyday that is something I could of not asked for or expected. All thanks to the Inter Group listening to me and what I want.
Who can say that the highlight of their summer was working, or being in a foreign country for 10 weeks and surviving without your parents? After coming back from Colombia and hearing my friends say was it dangerous, what was the worst thing you saw, were you scared, did you carry pepper spray around and saying no to every negative question about Colombia is incredible. People will never consider going to Colombia because they still see it as a dangerous country, however, it is a beautiful country, a country that now has a piece of my heart, and a country I miss so dearly. So a piece of advice, jump, do it, and do it now. It will never be something you regret.
Response from API Intern Group
First of all, thank you for your positive feedback and for your thoughts on where we could improve.
We are delighted that you felt the program offered you an excellent professional experience and springboard to launch your career. Equally important, we are really happy to hear that you enjoyed your time in Madrid so much. The whole team constantly strive to make this experience the very best it can be. That is, after all, why we exist and our success depends upon each and every one of our program participants leaving with a sense of accomplishment and enjoyment – and memories and experiences that will help them through their careers .
You raised some specific concerns that we would like to address.
Regarding the point about transparency - what we offer is a comprehensive service. What our program participants see, get and pay for is the finished article and one that involves an enormous amount of planning, logistics and staffing. The program includes a very great deal, as can be seen on our website and we believe that there is absolute transparency of what is, and is not, included in the program. When you arrive, you are met and driven to your accommodation, you receive a welcome briefing and guidance on a range of topics, all of which will make your life much easier; you have constant support throughout your entire stay in case of any issues; you have activities included which are designed to help you feel at home and understand what Madrid and Spain are all about, and the opportunity to make immediate friends with other interns in our large program community. In short, we remove all stress and chance, and give you support and certainty.
You also mentioned that we referenced billing a lot pre-arrival. We have checked the emails sent to you and you were sent 3 emails that referenced billing. It was mentioned in your acceptance letter to confirm your place in the program. A second once you had been confirmed in your internship role, and a third giving you a friendly reminder to pay your balance before the deadline a few weeks before arrival. All emails were very polite - we are saddened you feel this way. We try and be as fair and polite as possible – it is important, though, that everything is dealt with promptly. Things like your accommodation are paid for many weeks before your arrival and dealing with hundreds of apartments is a complex issue. To ensure a high quality program it is essential we deal with these elements in an organized fashion – something we have learnt many times over the years. To give some more context, you also received 3 emails pre-arrival just reminding you to take your 360 degree skill evaluation HR tool we include in the program – what we are trying to say here is pre-arrival it is imperative we deal with numerous elements of the program so you have the best experience possible. It is your experience that is what matters to us.
Regarding your point about not including food, insurance and travel costs – we used to include food in our programs and we stopped because we received very contradictory feedback. So far we have had interns from over 105 nationalities, so you can imagine the variety and complexity of tastes when it comes to food. We do not include insurance as it would be an unnecessary cost to many of our participants, who already have insurance plans through their family or university. But we do recommend a well-priced insurance plan for anyone without a family/university plan, and make this easy to purchase as an add-on. Finally, we do not include flights as everyone has different plans – some like to travel extensively before and after the program and coordinating a price plan with airlines would make this element far more expensive for our program participants than simply purchasing flights separately.
Regarding financial aid/diversity – this is a very good point and it is something we are very aware of. It is our long term aim to offer significant financial aid and scholarships on a needs-basis for everyone ambitious and talented enough to benefit from a first-class experience abroad like this. Indeed, this year we were very pleased to offer our first ever full-ride needs-based scholarship to our emerging markets program in Colombia. Step by step! It will take a long time, and we are still a young organization, but we will get there. We very much hope that if you look at us some years from now we will do very well on this point.
Finally, regarding the included events – finding the right balance has been a matter of trial and error and the feedback we have received has suggested that we are on the right path. We have an extensive social/cultural calendar where optional community events are also organized on a bi-weekly basis by our experience coordinator, which really aims to make you part of Madrid, take you under the surface with authentic experiences and bring our program community together. We used to include the professional development workshop on the weekend, but we moved it to a morning weekday after feedback from participants. On weeknights and weekends participants tend to want to explore Madrid, and the rest of Spain. Our partner companies support the workshop fully. Generally this is the best option all round.
As said, we are very pleased you had a rewarding experience with us. We hope that the above comments help you understand where we are coming from with the decisions we have made. And we thank you for underlining the point about financial aid/diversity – which is a topic we feel strongly about and aim to score very well on when feasible.