A great experience, but with lots of bumps

This program was amazing for me and helped me grow a lot as a person. I went to Argentina and throughout my time there I was able to engage in school, sports, community events, travel, and make friends. In general, I had a very immersive experience and I grew to love a lot of the Argentinan culture. I was also able to go on a trip to Patagonia and travel for more than half a month because of the program I had chosen.

For a lot of my program, I attended high school abroad and I was happily surprised by how smoothly the transition went. My program paid the local private school I went to and helped me find uniforms right away. I was offered help with my Spanish and could have attended lessons if I needed. In addition, I had modified assignments and extra support from teachers so I could successfully complete my work. In addition, I found that everyone in my school class was very willing to integrate me into the class and I was able to make many friends. One thing to note is that it is highly possible that the schoolwork you complete in Argentina will not count in your home country because the schooling is vastly different and not as advanced as in many other countries.

I did struggle with my host family and found that I wasn't always comfortable with them and was happier outside of the household. I had the option to switch families, but I chose not to. However, if you do have a "bad" host family it seemed fairly easy to request and be granted a change in family. Speaking about host families and houses, I thought the living conditions were okay. They definitely weren't the best, but in general, my house was clean, warm, etc.

The reason I am hesitant to recommend this program is that I saw a lot of irresponsible decisions made by the EduQuality staff members who work in conjunction with Greenheart. The decisions they made and most interactions I had where didn't put the best interests of the exchange students first. For example, I watched other students struggle with their host families or other cultural aspects and saw EduQuality take away support from them instead of reaching out and helping them succeed. I also found that in general the host families were not very well prepared to accept exchange students and that the EduQuality staff members had not done a good job communicating with host families. For me, this is a deal breaker. If you are struggling with your host family and have no other support, you will have a horrible time.

Because of this, I would recommend a different program unless you are a fairly self-confident, flexible, and straightforward person. It's not that the program is not great, it was just that I found in Argentina the people carrying out the program were not doing it properly. Overall, I am satisfied with my experience, but I do think it could have been better and I recognize that this is partially due to the program I chose.