An honest review of the pros and cons of interning with Adelante

I spent 2 months in Madrid working in a LGBT public health office. My experience living in this beautiful city was phenomenal being that I was immersed in Spanish culture. The nightlife is amazing, as you'd imagine, and I made great friends both inside and outside the program. We loved visiting other Spanish cities as well as Portugal whenever we got the chance. I really enjoyed my time at the Spanish school as everyone was extremely supportive and I learned a lot in a short period of time. All my coworkers were also lovely and helped me improve my Spanish skills throughout my time there. I do feel that it is important to mention though that you should take the Spanish language skill required by adelante seriously. Some internships do require a higher level of speaking and if you are dishonest with adelante about your ability there isn't much they can do to help if your boss becomes dissatisfied. Additionally, I will say that my expectations were not fully met on the adelante side. My original desire was to work in a hospital or clinic and although the backup plan of public health was established over the phone and I agreed to it, I got the sense that the Plan B discussed became the default for myself and the other interns I spoke to. I believe I only met 2 interns that were fully satisfied with their work placement and received their Plan A. However, in this situation I believe you get what you pay for being that adelante is securing an internship for you even if its not ideal. To me and many of the others this didn't end up being a big issue as we grew to like our placements, but if youre passionate about working in one specific area to really build your resume, adelante may not be the right fit.
Conclusion: Adelante provided me with the opportunity to live and work in Madrid which was most definitely one of the best experiences of my life. I feel as if the internship placement could have been better, but being the most affordable program I found, I'm far from dissatisfied.