Villanova University: Language & Culture Internship

I absolutely loved Chile. I wish I could have stayed longer!! The people, the food, the social scene, the culture, the scenery-everything was so interesting and made for an absolutely wonderful experience.

I participated in the internship program that Villanova offers its students. Since I am a nursing major, I was placed in a Physical Therapy office for my internship. This was probably the place where I learned the most Spanish, and had the opportunity to observe and understand the differences between our two healthcare systems. The people working there as well as the patients were so friendly and willing to teach me everything I wanted to know about their language/culture and the healthcare system. My only complaint about this was that even for all of the work all of us did in our internship placements, students were credited with Latin American Studies credits, and not Spanish credits. As someone who already has a limited amount of free credits to take Spanish classes, this was a shortcoming that I wish could be solved in future programs, because now I won't be able to complete a Spanish minor. But all things considering, I would do the whole thing over again, and would go back in a heartbeat. Viva Chile!

I thought that this program was a quality one. The teachers and community were extremely helpful to us. My host family was amazing and they genuinely wanted me to have a fun time.

Chile was my first study abroad experience, but not my last! Those six weeks were wonderful, but they made me realize I wanted to go abroad for an entire semester. Imagine how much more I could learn, see, do, and experience in an entire semester. I just returned from a semester in Seville, Spain - the best semester of my life. I was motivated to study there because of my experience in Chile!

Chile is an amazing country. I would strongly recommend studying abroad in Chile- for the people, the culture, the beauty of the country, and more. No one in my program had issues of safety (with the exception of a few pickpockets), and the homestays were wonderful.

Overall, Villanova provided a good program to Chile, but it could have been much better. I found Villanova's program staff in Chile to be a little disconnected from the students on the trip. As my group was in Chile during a time of protest, the program staff should have communicated better how to handle the protests in the city- instead, they never addressed the protests. Also, although Villanova offered internships, they were a little hit & miss. Some people had great experiences with their jobs while others had their internship experiences completely fall through.