San Sebastian A+

The USAC program in San Sebastian was very well organized, very well staffed and over all a huge success in my opinion. The office staff and the teachers were exceptionally helpful and went above and beyond to accommodate us, help us integrate into the community, meet people, find internships and share knowledge about the region. Specifically I remember Aizpea helping me on multiple occasions to contact a family to whose daughter I was tutoring English. Cecilia was also very helpful in setting me us with an internship in the local community and was always so sweet and exciting about helping me and talking to me about my experience. I think she would make a really great teacher in that program. The teachers that I did have were also wonderful. They all were passionate about their subjects and about getting us to learn and use Spanish. My track teacher, Asun, is one of my favorite teachers of all time. Even though she was a strict grader and really like homework, she was so warm and honestly wanted us to succeed. We could tell that she actually cared about us and enjoyed coming to class every day. I really appreciate how hard she worked for us and how much she taught me. The location of this program could not be more ideal either, with the beach and opportunities for surfing, hiking and other outdoors activities along with city life. My living experience was absolutely ideal. I live with a host mom, Tina, who went completely out of her way to make me feel at home and get the most out of my experience as I could. She only spoke Spanish with me and helped me learn so much. She even took me on vacation for two weeks with her and brought me to family dinners frequently. I couldn’t have gotten luckier that I did in being placed with Tina. I do think that our classes were more difficult that other USAC programs from what I’ve heard from other students. I felt it was difficult at times to balance all of the extracurricular and fun activities with the expectations of our professors and how strictly they graded. However, we learned so much and I am thankful for how they ran the program.