Program Reviews

WorldTeach is more independent and we are allowed a lot of freedom to live around our placement sites. I met a lot of great friends and still keep in touch with teachers from my school in Namibia. I'll never forget my host family and the lifechanging experience I had in my close-knit village community. On school break we did some great traveling in South Africa and Namibia. Then after the close of the our program we took a great trip across Botswana. It's the most beautiful region of the world I have ever been.

We worked at Fundacion Pies Descalzos, the school started by Shakira in her home town. The school was just in its 2nd year of existence when we started there, so everything was still new and exciting, but also disorganized and being created on the fly. This included our English as a Second Language program, for which we were provided no curricular materials and little adminstrative support from the school. WorldTeach was great in their support and so was the host organization, Volunteers Colombia. We had some significant problems with our living situation, which compounded the challenges we faced in classrooms of 40 or more students living in poverty each day. However, this was the experience we signed up for and it was extremely rewarding because it was challenging. And living and working in Colombia was a dream fulfilled for me. I loved the country, the people and the opportunity to get to know both.

I liked it so much I found a job in Bangkok so I could stay an extra year. Our field support person Nicole was super helpful and I met some of my best friends (other teachers) in the first two weeks of the program, during our intensive teacher training and Thai immersion. I was in a tiny town called Ayutthaya after that and am still in touch with some of my students.

It was all the adventure I was craving and more. If you’re considering this program, do it. It was well organized and I know I made a positive impact by going.

I would do another Worldteach program in a heartbeat.

This program was life-changing. Teaching abroad has broadened my perspectives. In this program, you had an opportunity to teach science. Living in the rainforest was unique and every day their challenges. Be prepared to hand wash your clothes and live without internet. Favorite memory was traveling to sea turtles on Shell Beach. Travel many hours by boat through windy rivers and rainforest but was worthwhile. I saw Green Sea turtle hatchings and Leatherback lay eggs. The family that lives in Shell Beach were extremely nice as well.

My dad had told me I should be a teacher. I had said "No way!" Then I went to Poland in 1994 to teach high school in Sochaczew, Poland... I found my vocation though not my population. I learned I love being a teacher but was not wild about hormonal teenagers. I have since gotten a TEFL certification and a Masters in English (TESL and Rhet/Comp) and taught ESL (and some native speaker English Comp) for 20+ years. The karmic payoff is amazing but the day to day wages generally are low unless you are teaching as something other than a non-perm, part-time adjunct.
The WorldTeach program was perfect for me. I liked the non-selective nature of the process. My in-country support was great (especially since I got sick and had to come home early). Although I have not stayed in touch with others from my cohort, I think of them often. I would highly recommend WorldTeach to anyone who wants to teach EFL overseas!

I had the pleasure of going to Costa Rica in the Summer of 2010 via WorldTeach. They helped me every step of the way not just in planning my trip but support when I was in country at my placement site. I can't recommend this program enough. It is well established so there is no concern for your safety or concerns that you will be completely alone when you go. I was able to fundraise ALL the money I needed to go and WorldTeach offers materials about how to get your fundraising started.
They offer many programs but Costa Rica was especially beautiful and my host family were so welcoming.

The application process for WorldTeach is well-organized and moves swiftly from the first contact to program placement. Having the option to choose a destination country and specify the city (and climate!) you prefer makes this program appealing. The training is intense but fun and focused on success for both the volunteer teachers and their future students. Personally, my homestay (family) placement was tragic, but I managed to find a safe option in the same city and WT supported the change. The camaraderie of the volunteers in my Colombia 2014 year was sporadic; it seemed best to be capable of being alone as much as with others. The time allotted is perfect (one year) as it allows for travel, cultural immersion, and building valuable career skills as a result of the experience.

American Samoa is one of the most beautiful places I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. The empty beaches and uninhabited mountains created such a serene and peaceful experience, it felt like my own private island. The process of training on island before being assigned to our locations allowed me to create strong bonds with my fellow volunteers in a very short time. Between the people I was able to befriend through the program and the beauty of the island, I had one of the best years of my life there. The things that were a struggle there were partly the support from our program director and the cultural issues at work. The program director we had that year seemed to brush everyone's concerns under the table and was really hard to get in contact with. The location they placed me at to teach was over a mountain from where I lived where buses didn't go regularly so I would have to stand by the side of the road, sometimes up to an hour, trying to hitch hike over the mountain to get to work in the morning (which in the torrential rain really sucked). At work I was put in charge of 7th and 8th graders which posed a challenge. The students didn't treat me very well because the saw me as an outsider and would tell me they didn't care what I had to say because i was white and a woman. That was a constant battle the entire year. I also didn't live in the very remote village so I wasn't apart of their community so I never came in contact with their parents to be able to hold the kids accountable for their behavior. The main language spoken on the island is Samoan but school is taught in English so a lot of the conversations happening in class I couldn't understand which also posed challenges. There were a number of challenges that I faced on the island but it was still the best time of my life. If you are resilient and love to connect with other people who have a passion for adventure then it is a good program to choose. If you are looking to really make a difference with children's education then this might not be the best place to do it.

The overall experience of this program was an incredible learning experience for me. I learned about living in the old media of Fes, and how different cultures can be. The first week of the experience was orientation in Casablanca, where we learned about the language, customs and some basic teaching skills. I then went four hours by train to Fes to meet with my host family. It unfortunately did not work out with my host family because it was only a couple with no children, and who fought constantly with one another. There were many, many issues with finding another suitable host family that I had to get an apartment and did not have the true experience of being with a host family. My teaching experience was interesting because the program had nothing set up for over a week once I got to Fes. During this time I explored Fes. I then taught children in a juvenile detention center for about three weeks, but then the students went home to be with their families for Ramadan and did not come back to the classroom. I had to wait another week to be set up in a cultural center where I was able to speak with older students and teach them more advanced English. This experience showed me that there are always going to be issues in managing a program like this, but that there is always something to look forward to like teaching various students and exploring the culture.

The training and support we received from our in-country coordinators was superb. They really do their best to make you feel comfortable and I made many great friends within my cohort of volunteers. The teaching experience was all over the place, but given the nature of the assignment, that was partly to be expected. The best part was just being able to travel and to immerse myself in a new culture and language.

Overall, it was a good program.