Connect-123 Education Internships

My two month internship in Buenos Aires exceeded all of my expectations. I had the opportunity to help teach English at a school with grades first through seventh. As a Spanish education major and Teaching English as a Second Language minor I am very interested in languages and wanted hands on experience in a school. From working one on one with students, to teaching lessons my education internship allowed me to gain real world experience of what every day life is like in a classroom. Aside from my internship, Buenos Aires is a great place. There is always something to do, from going to museums, shopping at fairs, to hanging out with friends in plazas there is something for everyone. This program is a great way to be immersed in another language and culture and I am so grateful for this opportunity!

During my gap year before starting as a freshman at Rice University, I interned for 3 months as a teacher’s assistant at a preschool in Buenos Aires. It was a super great experience: my Spanish skills improved tremendously, I gained valuable experience working with children, and I immersed myself in the porteño culture. My internship was certainly hard at times, mostly because of the language barrier between myself and the other teachers, I was enriched so much by getting to spend time with such adorable children.

Outside my internship, I loved taking classes at the language school Connect referred me too. The teachers there were excellent and I made friends with several of the other students there from Europe and the US. This was my first time living on my own, which presented some of the biggest challenges of my trip, but Paula (the program coordinator) was always there if I needed help. I like the way being a Connect intern provided me with a network of new friends to explore Buenos Aires and Argentina with. There were many planned activities us interns could join in on, but Connect was appropriately hands-off so that our experiences could be as unstructured as we wanted. We were in charge of shaping our own experiences. The highlight of my 3-month time in Argentina was the trip I took to Patagonia with some friends from Connect.

I would certainly recommend a Connect internship to anyone looking for an educational and fun experience that can be as structured or as free as you wish.