Summer in Ecuador

I truly can't recommend this program enough. As a double major in Latin American Studies and Environmental Policy, a chance to study environmental science while immersed in the vibrant, diverse culture of Ecuador was pretty much the perfect study abroad experience for me. Before the start of the program I was expecting it to be great, but I never could have imagined just how many things I would get to do, how many places I would get to go, and how many great people I would get to meet. Not only was I able to take interesting classes with knowledgeable professors from a wide range of backgrounds, I got to visit the largest Indigenous market in South America (Otavalo), spend a weekend in Cotopaxi National Park and hike to an altitude of 16,000 fasl, study and explore at the remote Tiputini Biodiversity Research Station in the Amazon rain forest, and spend three weeks in the Galapagos Islands. Not to mention the dear friends I got to study with, the host families who took care of me and treated me as a part of the family, and all of the day to day adventures that are par for the course when you spend an extended amount of time abroad. I am incredibly grateful for this program, and it has been one of the highlights of my life thus far. The amount of things I got to do/learn/experience in a span of only 7 weeks is really mind blowing, and this program is really a great deal financially too. I can't recommend this program enough, or any of the other IES Abroad programs all over the world.