Internships in Seville, Spain - Adelante Abroad

As my time in Spain is quickly coming to an end, it has made me reflect on my time abroad and appreciate all the memories I have made. For some context, I am doing a computer science internship in Seville, Spain, from January to May. When I first came out, I took 2 weeks of Spanish classes, which were fantastic. These classes quickly helped me make some friends and get used to living in Spain. After these classes, I started my internship at PCPaco, which was a fantastic experience. It was exactly the role I wanted for my career, teaching me tons. They also helped me explore more of the city and learn about all the holidays. I think that my favorite part of Seville is the people. Everyone I have met out at clubs and in general has been extremely friendly and patient. Admittedly, my Spanish was not amazing starting out, but everyone was patient with me and quickly helped me learn. I also have never felt so safe in a city this big. Walking home from clubs, the streets are always lit, and I never felt unsafe. Overall, 10/10 experience, and I definitely would recommend it to anyone wanting the experience of living abroad.

To begin, I really enjoyed my time in Seville and I don't regret this experience. That being said, there were of course positives and negatives that others should be aware of. Starting with the good, Seville is a beautiful city with great nightlife and many sights to see. The people that I worked with from my marketing internship at the partner school, Spanish Institute for Global Education, were friendly and I always felt I could ask them any questions. I created lots of content for the social media, designed various promotional materials, and gained experience of what it's like to work in marketing. I also was able to travel on excursions with the school and had time to explore around Europe on my own. Now for the negative, my first internship I was contracted to pulled out once I was already in Spain. I ended up doing social media marketing for the school, so I did not experience the Spanish immersion that I had hoped for. I lived in an apartment with other English speakers, and my internship only had me come in two to three days of the week. I made friends with the students at the school, but they were all English speakers as well, and I didn't know how to meet Spaniards my age to help me be immersed. I would recommend staying with a host family so you have to speak in Spanish. With the housing, the apartment was generally nice, but my room had no window to the outside, it opened to the laundry room. There was also a smell of mildew from the bathroom that would never go away. It was just bad luck of where I was placed. I still appreciate the knowledge I gained here and the experience of living among a different culture.

My experience in Seville was truly one of a kind. As a marketing intern at the Spanish Institute for Global Education, I worked on real world projects like social media planning, content creation, and outreach strategies. What made it unique was the balance between professional learning and cultural immersion. I improved my Spanish, explored stunning cities like Córdoba and Málaga, and made friendships that crossed borders.

Future participants should know that this experience goes beyond the internship. It is about stepping out of your comfort zone, embracing a new culture, and growing in ways you never expected.

My experience with adelante abroad was much different than I expected. I was excited to come to Seville with an already organized internship and plans for my 8 weeks here, however when I got here, my internship was not finalized. Even though I was told I would have an internship relating to my major, when I got here they told me my internship might not work out and were planning on putting me in an internship completely unrelated to my interests. Eventually I was able to do my initial internship, but didn’t allow me to do what I was expecting to do and I did not do what I was told I would. Additionally, adelante abroad was extremely disorganized and communicated very poorly. I felt very lost and uncertain on what I was supposed to be doing at first, if it weren’t for the friends I made here. The staff were very nice, but I just did not have the experience I paid for.

I had the best time in Sevilla. Working in the hospital was a fantastic learning experience, and exploring the rich Andalucía region led to endless adventures. Adelante offered support that allowed me to thrive in my internship while encouraging autonomy for an authentic abroad experience. From my coworkers in the hospital, to my roommates, to the many people I met throughout the city, I know I have made lifelong friends. I would recommend this program to anyone looking to take the next step in achieving their professional goals, or simply someone yearning for a unique adventure.

My experience with Adelante was definitely a good one. Not perfect, but good. The internship placement in the clinic was really awesome except that sometimes the director didn't want to listen to us and it lead to a few misunderstandings. But throughout the week when we were just working everything was awesome. Lots of hands on experience, lots of opportunities to learn new things. And the nurses and doctors there were so nice and really good at their jobs. I was continually impressed by them. I loved that our hours were monday-thursday as well because it gave us more time to travel and explore on the weekends. Our living quarters were pretty average. The bathroom was renovated, and the location was actually perfect, the neighborhood was super safe. Obviously it's not a USA luxury apartment but all things considered it was a good place to live. Usually if something broke or we had a problem they were able to help us out pretty quickly. The actual Adelante program itself was honestly much more independent than I expected, which was not a bad thing. They checked in every once in a while but honestly it felt like I was really living there by myself. Definitely a good way to gain experience adulting in another country haha. The only big complaint I would have with the program was communication. There were a number of details that weren't communicated to me at the beginning of the program like that I would have a specific uniform or little things like that. They would also often text us saying they were going to have someone come to the apartment for maintanence but only give us like a 30 minute warning and we were all at work. They got a little frustrated at that but honestly, we did to. We came to work, what can we say if we're not home at 11am. Anyway, besides the communication issues, it really was an amazing program. I learned and experienced sooooo much and I will never forget my time in Spain. If you're wondering whether or not it's worth it -- it is.

There were a lot of positives from this experience. I was able to work closely with doctors in a way that I had not previously experienced. This gave me a great way to learn, and I was also able to see a lot of different medical cases. However, this was not very hands-on at all, and the program director in Sevilla refused to listen to what we were saying regarding our college majors. So had he been willing to hear us out, we could have gotten a better chance to do more tasks. But besides that, everything else at the clinic was cool.

Meeting new friends from all over the US and overseas was a unique experience. Meeting people from Seville was lovely too! The culture, the food, and the beauty of the city are amazing. Having the opportunity to internship abroad is quite an experience, knowing Spanish but learning new words and of course, another pronunciation was fascinating. Adelante abroad in Sevilla answered all of my questions when I had one, they were very helpful and friendly as well. While in Seville, I also had the opportunity to travel around Europe.