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Location
  • Honduras
Length
52+ weeks
Classroom Audience
Early Childhood Pre-School Elementary Middle School

Program Details

Qualifications
  • A Bachelor’s degree by June 2024 (all majors welcome to apply!)
  • A commitment to BECA’s mission and a dedication to social justice
  • Strong interpersonal and cross-cultural skills
  • Capacity to manage multiple tasks simultaneously
  • Willingness to operate in a low-resource environment under challenging living conditions
Classroom Audience
Early Childhood Pre-School Elementary Middle School
Housing
Apartment
Weekly Classroom Hours
35
Age Min.
18

Pricing

Salary / Benefits
BENEFITS: All BECA volunteer teachers receive…
- A monthly food stipend
- Local transportation to/from the airport
- Housing (within a shared living accommodation)
- High-speed internet, and all utilities, provided by BECA
- Assistance in obtaining temporary residency status, or support with obtaining a temporary VISA, depending on volunteer need/local regulations
- Intensive summer training, and ongoing training and professional development throughout the academic year
- Immersion in a Spanish speaking community, with opportunities for Spanish-language acquisition
Price Details
There are no fees to volunteer with us. Volunteers have to cover only their airfare and, if needed, health insurance. BECA provides room and board, airport pick ups and drop offs, a stipend for food & incidentals, and assistance with the Temporary Residency process.
What's Included
Accommodation Airport Transfers Meals Transportation Visa Wifi
What's Not Included
Airfare Travel Insurance
Nov 07, 2023
Apr 23, 2019
Wish List
37 travelers are looking at this program

About Program

BECA invites ~12 international volunteers to join our volunteer teaching team each year, supporting both elementary and middle school students at 2 local schools, San Jeronimo Bilingual School and Santa Monica Bilingual School. At a high level, each volunteer teacher is responsible for: leading an English curriculum for students in grades PreK-9 in ELA, Science, Math, Art, PE and Computers (all classes are capped at 25 students, and most teachers take on one full curriculum for a grade level) supporting fellow teachers in the classroom, getting to know your students and their families, and immersing oneself in Honduran culture. Don’t worry - we’ll be there to support you with every step along the way!

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Video and Photos

Student reading
Thanksgiving Activities
BECA Schools Classroom

Program Highlights

  • Facilitate relationships with students’ parents and other community members
  • Plan lessons and teach in English (all subjects with the exception of Social Studies and Spanish)
  • Collaborate with the teaching team (Honduran and International) on school projects, events, planning, and curriculum development
  • Serve as an ambassador for BECA by helping to spread the word about our work to your families and friends
  • Participate in professional development events, such as local education-based conferences, and BECA-lead efforts

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Program Reviews

4.95 Rating
based on 22 reviews
Leave a Review
  • 5 rating 95.45%
  • 4 rating 4.55%
  • 3 rating 0%
  • 2 rating 0%
  • 1 rating 0%
  • Benefits 4.9
  • Support 4.9
  • Fun 4.85
  • Facilities 4.55
  • Safety 4.4
Good for Groups, Building your resume
Showing 17 - 22 of 22 reviews
Default avatar
Javin
37
Male
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

An unforgetable year that sets you apart

Aug 1, 2016

After my graduation from college, I spent a of years working both in education and for a non-profit in India. With this experience, I began applying to graduate school hoping to continue towards working in education and development. Unfortunately, I received a lot of rejections. The applicant pool has become so competitive that in order to enter these fields one needs a substantial amount of experience. Having learned this I embarked on a challenge that I knew would change my life.

I sought out to teach first grade in Cofradia, Honduras and it is one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had. While it has a reputation of being a dangerous country, Honduras is home to some of the kindest, most welcoming people I have met. While teaching with BECA, I was able to go beyond the school environment to meet families and become a part of the community. Not only are Hondurans welcoming, your fellow teachers become your family while you are there. It is an exceptional experience to be surrounded by like-minded individuals that share the same values of service, hard-work and teaching. While it will be difficult at times, the relationships you build and the experience you gain from teaching are invaluable and will set you apart from your peers.

I ended up reapplying to graduate school while in Honduras and with the things I had learned with BECA, I was able to show the schools why I would be an addition to their program. I recently completed my masters degree and am now working for a non-profit in the DC metro area. I think that if you have found yourself to be a bit stuck and you want to push yourself to grow and learn then BECA is the opportunity for you!

45 people found this review helpful.
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Default avatar
Jillian
35
Female
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Amazing experience

Jul 22, 2016

My time with BECA was truly an amazing experience. As a Latin American Studies and Spanish major, I was very interested in living and working in Central America. I was drawn to BECA for their community development model, in which they work with Honduran families and staff as true partners in an effort to create change. From my first day in Honduras, I felt supported by BECA. The six week training allowed me to bond with my fellow teachers and prepared me for managing my own classroom. Teaching was not always easy, but I knew I could always rely on the support and encouragement from my fellow teachers. The most important thing that I took away from my year teaching with BECA is the relationships I have made. I made lasting relationships with my students, their families, and my fellow teachers that will truly last a lifetime. I am grateful for the opportunity to have been welcomed into such a generous community of people in Honduras and for the opportunity to have worked along side them to continue to provide affordable bilingual education for their children.

46 people found this review helpful.
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Default avatar
Adam
35
Male
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

A unique and rewarding professional experience

Jul 22, 2016

I volunteered with BECA from 2011 to 2013 as a Program Administrator at Santa Monica Bilingual School. I felt empowered and motivated to be a part of an organization that gave me excellent support and meshed so well with my values and my understanding of good development practices. BECA began working in its partner communities by request of the communities who wanted to offer a high-quality bilingual education to improve their children's academic and employment opportunities. BECA's child-centered programming continues to be informed by its local partners, host communities and its students' parents to this day. I particularly enjoyed working side by side with parents who volunteered at the school to pay for their child's education.

This experience pushed me to continue my international development career Stateside; I currently work for a USAID implementing partner in Washington, DC.

My best memories of my time in Honduras are of hardworking and goofy students, dedicated parents, baleadas (you have to try this food!), beautiful vistas, bonding with fellow volunteers and community members, playing in a soccer league, and seeing incredible growth in students, in BECA, and in myself.

39 people found this review helpful.
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Default avatar
Andrew
35
Male
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Go on, challenge yourself!

Jul 21, 2016

If you are looking for a meaningful, challenging and rewarding way of contributing to education and international development, you can't get better than BECA!

I spent two years in Honduras with the BECA team: 2012-2013 as a 2nd grade classroom teacher at Santa Monica Bilingual School (SMBS) and 2013-2014 as Program Administrator of SMBS. Here are just a few of the things I learned from my time there (and that are on my Resume to this day!).

- Professional fluency in Spanish
- Managing a school of 118 students across grades K-4, team 7 teachers and over 100 community volunteers.
-Managing scholarship programs for students and families
-Designing programs (helping implement Library programs...computer classes...parent's English classes...)
-Designing school policy (enrollment procedures...school lottery design...school security measures...)
-Event management (including how to sneak a Santa Claus into school past 300 adults and 100 children without anyone knowing!)
-Curriculum development (specifically helping implement BECA's custom ELA, Math & Science curricula
-Direct classroom teaching
-ELA and Math support
-Daily interactions with student's families

Not to mention making lasting friendships, sharing unique stories and having the time of my life in the middle of one of the America's most beautiful and diverse environments.

I've since moved on to study an MA in International Child Studies in London, and currently work in US education policy research in DC. BECA gave me every opportunity to develop as a volunteer and find out that I want to devote my career to children's advocacy and education for those who need it the most.

Go on, challenge yourself!

43 people found this review helpful.
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Yael
36
Female
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

An amazing opportunity to live and work in a supportive, nurturing Honduran community

Jul 21, 2016

For anyone interested in: education, Latin America, children, families, fresh fruit, mountains, hammocks, social justice, immersion in community...check out BECA!

Teaching third grade at a community school with BECA was an unforgettable experience, giving me access to tenacious and loving children and families, the opportunity to visit homes and learn Spanish, a rigorous teacher training, unlimited fresh mangos, and tools for a lifelong passion.

45 people found this review helpful.
Helpful
Default avatar
Sean
38
Male
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

An unforgettable experience.

Jul 21, 2016

Here a few things I think of when I think of my time in Honduras:

- The mothers of our students who bring us medicine when we’re sick
- First graders who share their snack every single day with those who don’t have food
- Parents who consistently ask how their students are behaving in class and progressing academically
- An 86-year-old woman raising a second grader who’s not even related to her by blood
- A father who spends half his day driving a truck full of students to and from school
- The doctors that have given us free consults because we’re volunteers
- The family members who clean classrooms or cut the grass every week so their children can go to bilingual school
- Students who have dreams of becoming doctors, teachers, pilots, artists, bankers, or firefighters
- The nuns who donate their funds to families in need of food or medical services
- The teachers who give up their planning periods to dedicate more time to helping their students succeed
- The families that feed us more food than we can eat when we visit their modest homes
- All the people on the street that gave us (questionable) directions to buses or attractions
- Our hostel making us sandwiches to bring on our volcano hike since we’d be missing the complementary breakfast
- Strangers on buses and boats giving up their seats or holding our bags for us

43 people found this review helpful.
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Questions & Answers

It says that incidental costs are covered. Is that enough to live from? Or would it be better to have saved some money before?

I’d say that it would be good to have money saved if you’d like to travel on school breaks. The stipend is enough to live day to day, but making the most of living in Central America will require a bit of savings.

By Anonymous on February 11, 2019
See all 2 answers

Staff Interviews

These are in-depth Q&A sessions with program leaders.

Erin Rudegeair

Program
Volunteer Classroom Teacher
Job Title
Director of Program Development
Erin Rudegeair

Born in New Orleans and raised in Northwestern Pennsylvania, Erin graduated from Penn State with a B.S. in Geography in 2010. After living in Honduras for 3 years, Erin returned to Pennsylvania to receive her Master of International Development from the University of Pittsburgh. When she's not visiting volunteers in Honduras, she can be found working out of her home office in Brooklyn.

What is your favorite travel memory?

Great first question. Living in Honduras for 3 years gave me the opportunity to travel extensively throughout the country and region (the latter mostly for visa-renewal purposes). I have been fortunate enough to visit all but 1 of Honduras’ 18 departments (some day I’ll get to you, Ocotepeque!) My favorite travel memory would have to be the epic Semana Santa (Holy Week) adventure during my time as a volunteer with Bilingual Education for Central America. Three fellow volunteers and I trekked all the way East to La Mosquitia, a gorgeous largely untouched part of the country. In fact, it hardly felt like being in Honduras at all.

At a certain point, the roads end and you have to drive on the beach until that’s no longer an option. From there on, it’s just rivers that take you where you need to go. On the way back, we visited the family of some of our students in Iriona, where we ate like kings and learned some Garifuna. We even finished off the trip with a couple nights in the party town of Trujillo. All in all, we did a little bit of everything and got the chance to visit places I’ll likely never see again.

There were so many first on that trip: first time I drove on the beach, first time I heard Pech and Miskito (two indigenous languages spoken in the region); first time I slept under a mosquito net; first time I traveled in a handmade pipante (or canoe); first time I made cassava (well, attempted to make cassava); and, while it wasn’t the first time I stayed up for 24 hours, those are always really epic days and this one was no different.

How have you changed/grown since working for your current company?

I think it’d almost be easier to talk about what ways I haven’t changed to be honest. I remember before my very first trip to Honduras, someone told me “this trip is going to be life-changing” and I remember laughing that off as something so cliché. But dang it, she was right. Everything has changed. I am who I am now because of my decision to volunteer abroad.

I used to want to “do good” and suffered from a “save the world” complex and that has certainly changed. I want more than just to “do good”. I want to be of benefit and I want to live a life of service because I was born with a whole heck of a lot of privilege and I want to leverage that to benefit those who were born with fewer opportunities than I was. I learned that through volunteering and living away from all the comforts and familiarities of home.

When I was volunteering abroad, I thought in some ways I was running away from the real world. I thought I would have an ah-ha moment where everything would click and I would know exactly what I to do with my life. But now I know that uncertainty is part of the path. I am a life-long learner and, as long as I’m learning and growing, I’m on the right path. After all if you’re not growing, you’re dying, right?

What is the best story you've heard from a return student?

We had an alumna who returned to Honduras after 2 ½ years to work with us again for 5 months. She was such a wonderful addition to our volunteer team mid-way through the school year not only from her previous experience with BECA but also the different skills and experiences she brings to the table a couple years later.

When she landed in country, we immediately got caught in a bad traffic jam due to an accident up ahead, so we got to talking. I asked her what she was most looking forward to during her time back with BECA and she said “spending time with the mothers”. She could have said she was looking forward to traveling to Guatemala or Copen, going to one of the Bay Islands, adventuring behind the massive waterfall at Pulhapanzak, or any number of things. But her answer, “spending time with the mothers (of our students)”, was so beautiful and so powerful. She reminded me in her simple response the whole reason why we do what we do.

If you could go on any program that your company offers, which one would you choose and why?

I would be most interested in becoming a Program Administrator, but as a 2nd year volunteer with BECA. We didn’t really have Admins back when I volunteered since we were only 1 school back then. But now that we’ve grown into a network of 3 locally owned schools, we have Program Administrators (one at each school), Program Manager, and In-country Director positions. While I learned so much through my year as a Volunteer Teacher with BECA, I knew at the end of it that I did not want to pursue a career as a classroom teacher, which is why the Admin position would have been very appealing to me.

I suggest volunteering as a classroom teacher with BECA first because, in our experience, our strongest Administrators have been those who already knew our program and our communities. BECA is all about relationships and those things take time so having a year under your belt better prepares volunteers to take on the Administrator role.

What makes your company unique? When were you especially proud of your team?

BECA is unique because we are one of the few secular, grassroots organizations offering long-term volunteer placements in Honduras. Our funding is not tied to any one church or donor, so we have the freedom to invest in what’s important to our partners. Our partnerships are another important factor in what makes us unique. Our model is built on partnerships with local, Honduran NGOs that believe in our mission. We don’t partner with local organizations to check a box on some grant application. We partner with local organizations because we believe it is the only way for us to effectively and sustainably operate our programs.

One of the things that continue to fill my heart with pride is the expansion of our volunteer program to include Honduran volunteers. Since 2017, we’ve had 13 Honduran volunteers – many of whom graduated from our founding school, San Jeronimo Bilingual School, work with us as volunteer teachers. Each of them brings such amazing benefits to the whole volunteer teaching team serving as ambassadors for our schools and the communities where we work. We have found such strength in diversifying our team for our volunteers and our students alike. We now have more and more teachers who look like their students. I remember fondly hearing about student at Santa Monica who saw Miss Rosa – who is from Tocoa, Honduras – teaching and asked “Does this mean I can be a teacher here one day?” YES! Yes, that is exactly what that means!

What do you believe to be the biggest factor in being a successful company?

Relationships. Real, genuine relationships based on mutual interests (such as sharing a common mission and vision for the future), trust, respect, integrity, and understanding. The work we do is difficult and where we work presents a number of challenges, but the relationships – with community members, parents, students, and fellow teachers – are what make it all worthwhile, even on the hottest, stickiest, sweatiest, draining days.

Location

Location:
Honduras
Currency:
Honduran Lempira
Weather:
Jan-Mar
86 F / 57 F
Apr-Jun
88 F / 63 F
Jul-Sep
90 F / 64 F
Oct-Dec
86 F / 59 F
Airports:
Ramón Villeda Morales International
( SAP )
Toncontín International
( TGU )
Juan Manuel Gálvez International
( RTB )

From the incredible temperature of the Caribbean to the Mayan ruins, there is always something to keep you occupied in Honduras. No matter where you end up in Honduras, there is always lush greenery to explore and pinchos to eat, all at an unrivaled price.

About Bilingual Education for Central America

BECA is a 501(c)3 organization that recruits, trains, and supports English-speaking volunteer teachers to staff a network of community-run bilingual schools in Honduras that serve low-income communities. We exist to promote cultural exchange and affordable bilingual education. Our volunteer-driven bilingual school model creates an environment in...

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