Program Reviews

During my 5 week program with Linguistic Horizons I was able to engage in new environments, meet new people, and learn new things everyday. The staff was very intentional about creating programs with local individuals who were eager to share their passion, culture, and country with us. I felt very safe and the accommodations were phenomenal, including all the delicious food! I befriended everyone in the group who was participating in the program as well as the professional staff in the program. Together we made a really great team and scheduled weekend excursions to Machu Picchu, Bolivia (which turned into a spontaneous trip to Lake Titicaca), and several other hiking spots where ancient ruins were not scarce. What makes this program so unique is the focus to stay away from the touristic areas and make your experience more than a typical tourist visit. Highly recommend!

My experience learning about nutrition and natural medicine in Peru was truly amazing. Through this program I had the opportunity to learn about aspects of natural medicine and holistic nutrition which I have never had the opportunity to learn in school. It was so awesome to get to experience the health culture of this country and learn about all of the amazing Peruvian super foods and herbs used! I have already benefited so much from the information I learned about essential oils, body work, natural and herbal medicine, tradition Peruvian cooking and super foods, and overall holistic health - and it has sparked a desire within me to continue to learn more about these topics! I also loved all of the opportunities we had to hike and enjoy the outdoors - which were many! Every day was filled with fun workshops, delicious food, and outdoor adventures :) Peru is such a beautiful and health conscious place, and I hope to go back again! I could not recommend this program enough!

To begin, the founder and director of the program, Nicole Berry is absolutely excellent! She is always available to contact through email or phone about any questions or concerns you might have, as well as providing a pre- departure orientation so that you are able to speak to others attending the program, and to prepare you for what can be expected as far as what to bring, what you can expect, as well what is expected of you.
As for the program, my focus is in education so I was placed with an organization called Semillas de Jesus. This organization served as a dormitory for indigenous children who were living outside of the main town of Urubama but studied there during the week. The kids would arrive on Monday mornings, live in the dormitories during the week to attend school, then return to their respective outlying towns on Fridays. This was an amazing placement and experience for me because not only did I get to interact with the kids in both Spanish and English, I was able to do community visits with the organizers of the organization to visit the homes and families of the children I was teaching. I was able to create close relationships with the children and it was extremely difficult to leave. It was not only an educational experience but an opportunity for personal growth as well. It was an amazing experience and I am very thankful that I was chosen to participate.

I found this program online and I am so glad that I did. My internship was amazing. I gained a lot of great experience in my field of study working for an engineering consulting company. I also took a class at the local university and further improved my spanish and learned about the rich Spanish culture. I absolutely loved living, working and studying in La Coruña. The program is super well organized. I made wonderful friends and connections to last a life time. It was definitely an experience I will never forget and that I would recommend to anyone looking to have an awesome summer experience abroad.

I learned many new things during my 5-week intern abroad in Peru. Nicole Berry is a great leader and truly cares that the student gains amazing experience from this trip. Living abroad, even for a short time has the potential to drastically change a personal perspective on the world and how we have become accustomed to living in it. Anyone who is interested in a change of scenery would love this program.
Would highly recommend this program.

If you are looking for the most authentic experience possible I would highly recommend this program. Nicole, the program coordinator, offers a far lower price to intern abroad than my own school does! From the moment I turned in my application for this internship, Nicole was great with communication. Even without all of the amazing hikes(MACHU PICCHU!!), food, markets, and hands on medicinal experiences, I would say Nicole alone is what made this trip worth it for me. She is very attentive to detail and genuinely cares about you. When I would email her prior to departure, I would receive a reply within a few hours max. Upon arrival in Peru, she was constantly checking on us to make sure that not only were we hydrated and adjusting to the altitude, but that we were enjoying the activities we were doing. She and Max made a great team, he is very educated on the many ruins that we visited and knows the mountains like the back of his hand. If there is something you are interested in that is not included on the day's itinerary, Nicole will go out of her way to help you book that activity or make a day trip. This truly is as authentic as you can get. You truly learn your way around the town of Urubamba and might run into a cow or two. Even if I had planned by Peru trip on my own, I would never been able to meet the healers that I did through Nicole's contacts. She has some truly amazing friends and shares great advice/travel experience. This was a very spiritual experience for me, and it left me viewing my own world through a different lens.

I was looking for a program that focused on herbalism and a natural, holistic look at life and medicine. I was also hoping to find something that would get me back into a spanish speaking country to practice my fading language skills and support my love of cultural exploration. Nicole's program (and it really is her grown-up brain child) did this for me and provided so much more than I had ever hoped. Nicole is an amazing person and has connected herself to an incredibly welcoming and insightful community. The cost of the program covers delicious cuisine for most of your meals, multiple excursions to incredible sights often featured in National Geographic, and an introduction and entrance into the culture on so many levels. You meet local artist communities, have contact with shamans who live several days worth of hiking up in the mountains, meet Max--our fabulous local tour guide and source of endless stories accessible to people of all spanish speaking levels--explore phenomenal nature and learn the secret local knowledge of how to barter at the markets and who sells the best fruit. Oh my Goodness the fruit. It's worth it if all you do is eat the fruit, but you do so much more as well.

We hiked the mountains that create a backdrop to Urubamba and collected native medicinal plants for a local healer. We gave ceremonial thanks to Pacha Mama in return for letting us collect what we needed from her mountain and used what we gathered to heal people. I summated Machu Pichu and Huayna Pichu in the glorious jungle rain and sat in meditation in the temple of the moon half way down the back side of the mountain. We went to the Salt flats at Maras and spent days just sitting around loving life. We met with Vedic healers who taught us nutritional information and made the best snacks.

Make the decision to go on the trip for yourself, because you will grow so much and learn about yourself and the world in ways you are not expecting.

This program has benefitted my outlook on medicine, nutrition, travel, and my environment in too many ways to count. I came to Peru with little knowledge of nutrition and herbalism, and absolutely no ability to speak Spanish. However, I was immediately welcomed and given the resources to take Spanish classes. I felt encouraged to fully immerse myself in the experience, and through many workshops by people who worked with many types of indigenous medicine, herbalism, and nutrition every day, I learned so much about myself, the earth, and a more wholesome and caring culture in addition to the subjects the workshops were officially about. I learned a great deal of Spanish in a short amount of time, leaving with a determination to continue studying the language, apply what I had learned, and live in a more wholesome and open way connected to my surroundings and community. I cannot thank Nichole enough for the careful planning and love that she clearly put into the program and for the warm and open way she welcomed me and the rest of the members of the program. I made connections that truly changed me and met people I will never forget. This is a beautiful, immersive way to learn and to experience Peru, and I would recommend the program to anyone with even the slightest interest in Peru, nutrition, alternative medicines, or the environment.

I came across a Linguistic Horizons ad in a Political Science class at Santa Monica College and I'll never regret my decision. It has been one of the best experiences of my life! Living only a few blocks away from the beach and across the street from my internship with VALORA Consultores, I couldn’t have had a better location. It was four-bedroom apartment where I had my own room and lived with three other guys that I now consider my lifelong friends. A Coruña is an amazing city with amazing seafood and great people. I’ve never seen elderly people out having fun at one in the morning until my trip to Coruña.

Every weekend was a new adventure, whether it was wine country in Ribeira Sacra, San Fermin in Pamplona, visiting the beautiful city of Oporto in Portugal or learning about the history of Santiago de Compostela. Nicole, the program director, made sure there was something to see or do at all time. She made herself available at all times and never did I feel lost in a foreign country.

I highly recommend anyone that has the opportunity to study abroad whether it’s to improve your Spanish or gain new skills interning, this will be an unforgettable experience! Nicole has put together a great program, the only regret I have is not staying for the full ten-week program.

My experience with this program truly exceeded my expectations. Nicole, the program director, was so beyond helpful from before the program even started until the very end. I was only there for 3 weeks and I learned so much useful information about plant-based medicine, Peruvian culture, and nutrition. Before going it was not my main goal to improve my Spanish, but after being immersed in the language I left Peru being more motivated than ever to eventually be fluent in Spanish. The opportunities that were presented to the students in the program are not things that you can find anywhere else, it was truly a once in a lifetime experience. The people that I have met through this program are some of the most amazing people I know and meeting them has truly changed my life for the better, if I could do it all over again I would not change a thing.