Internships in Chile - Adelante Abroad

Adelante is poorly organized and doesn't follow through on the majority of what they say. I would not recommend that anyone use this service. I want to say right off the bat that Adelante offers $5 amazon gift cards in exchange for each review that participants write (they suggested 5 places). That definitely cleared things up for me in terms of why there were so many positive reviews when the service is overall very bad. I figured I would start off with the pre-departure packet that they give, and go over all of the things they didn’t follow through on. I would not label Adelante as a scam. However, there were several times where they stretched certain definitions, or made things seem as if they would be different than they turned out to be. From the orientation packet “What’s included” section: the “Comprehensive orientation meeting in country” was a 20 minute zoom meeting. Looking back on my notes from that meeting, we were told that classes started on Monday and given the address for the school. To clarify, it was not a school, it was a building that rented out rooms for people to use. The “intensive spanish classes” were just me and the one other person who was also doing the adelante program with me at the time. There was 1 three hour class a day for two weeks. Me and the other person with me were at two completely different levels of spanish learning. This was not taken into account. It was a private lesson with the two of us and a tutor. (The tutor was very nice. It was not her fault that Adelante put two people at very different levels into a lesson together.) Over the course of my time with the program, multiple people arrived whose Spanish was not good enough to survive in Chile (where almost no one speaks English. You need Spanish proficiency to get around, to buy things, to take the buses. We also were not given any information about the buses or transportation and had to figure this out on our own, so being able to speak fluently enough to ask for help was a must. Adelante told people that they would not need to speak Spanish completely because everyone at Adelante speaks English and could help them. However, adelante did not help them at all. I believe that they would say just about anything to get students to go to the country, because once they have paid and are abroad, there’s nothing they can do about it.) I also felt very uncomfortable expressing my displeasure once I was over there, because I didn’t want to burn the one bridge I had, even if they weren’t all that helpful, because they had power over every aspect of my life. We had to do literally everything ourselves. I am aware that they said it was an independent program. I am not saying that they didn’t say that. Food, transportation, every aspect of our lives we had to just figure out upon getting there. Nothing was set up for us besides the classes and the internship. (And by set up I mean they made sure there was one, but they didn’t provide details about schedule etc… that we also had to figure out upon arrival.) Adelante completely fails to communicate anything with the students who are abroad. I believe this is partially because adelante is a side gig for most of the staff, and is therefore not their main priority. I also think it is because they have no idea what is going on. For example, one time I got an email from one member of Adelante’s staff saying that there were going to be students traveling to Chile with Adelante, but that they would be in a different part of the city than me, so I would likely never meet them. I got another email from a different staff member saying that they would actually be staying in the same housing as me. (Side note, this housing was not an apartment or a homestay as advertised, it was a boarding house. Other Chilean people were also paying for rooms at this house, and there were no meals provided, at least not for me.) Another example of Adelante not knowing what is going on is that another of the people who were doing the program at the same time as me got an email from one of them letting her know that her internship started the following day, when her internship had actually started a week ago. This ties into the fact that there are no set times, schedules, etc… set up for the internships. They do not tell you when to go in (times, days, etc… It also ties in to the fact that the people who are there to help you don’t even know the start dates for your internship.) Some people have internships for three days a week, and even on the weekends, while for other people (like myself) it was 9-5 Monday through Friday. Also, out of the three people who did the program at the same time as me (it was staggered, as some people did it for shorter times, but over the course of my time in the program, three other people who were also with the program lived in the same boarding house as me at various times) two of them had their internships switched the day before. For one of these people it was the same type of internship but with a different company, and for another person it was a completely different topic. They were told literally the day before that they had a whole new internship, location, responsibilities, etc… Also, for two of the people I was with their classes and their internships overlapped, so they were forced to choose between two things that they had paid for- either they had to skip out on learning the language, which they needed to get around and survive in Chile, or they had to skip the first days of their internship. In terms of transportation to internships, one of the people who was there at the same time as me had to take a micro (the buses in Chile) to a different part of the city, then walk from there to the bus station to take a bus out of the city, at which point she met someone from her job who she carpooled with to get to her internship. Adelante provided very little assistance in terms of figuring this out. Some additional things that would’ve been helpful to know regarding the micro are that you have to wave them down when you want to get on and tell them when you want to get off, as they don’t stop at every stop. Information about which buses go to which places, what the numbers on the buses correspond to what, etc… also would’ve been helpful especially at the beginning when we were told to use the micro to get to class and pretty much just sent an address and told to figure it out. The “Some events and excursions” that they claim to provide are two walking tours that happen over the course of 8 weeks. For the people who stayed for 4 weeks they went on one walking tour. Other things that they recommend on the website such as visits to Patagonia or Machu Picchu are incredibly difficult to do and figure out (again, especially if you don’t know the language) as they require a plane ride and often cost up to $1000. You definitely can’t do this if your internship is full time, which you won’t know until the day of. Other Chileans were shocked that this was mentioned as a possibility. Other Chileans around me were also shocked by how little I knew about my own schedule, how little information was provided to me, and how unorganized the program was. This is not to say that anyone at Adelante was unkind. They are certainly petty, as evidenced by the fact that I was left on read mid conversation when I said I didn’t have any photos of my internship to share with them, and by the way that they disclose mental health information in their responses to negative reviews in an attempt to discredit the authors. I really hope no one ever gives them any money ever again. I was suspicious going in, because of how reticent and wishy-washy they were with information, but I ignored it because I was tired of being cautious, and I just wanted to do something. I hope that other people listen to that voice in a way that I didn’t, because there are other, better options than adelante.

The work part of the internship was flexible, respectful and I learned a ton in terms of Spanish and about web development. Adelante itself is barely involved and they have almost no company infrastructure in Chile, you’ll basically be on your own, especially after the first couple of weeks. One of the monthly check-ins they sent me (one of like 3-4 emails total I got from the company while away) asked how my time in Barcelona was going. Their in-country directora is very nice but has another full-time job and most times I texted her I ended up having to go resolve the issue I was asking for advice on myself. If you need to change housing or work, it seems to me to be entirely luck-based as to whether they will have anything available for you, and will likely not. If you’re already very independent, tolerant of not ideal living situations and speak the language, adelante is an okay last option if you can’t go through school, work, or a more inclusive program

The internship abroad working for a non-profit organization in Valparaiso, Chile was an incredible experience. The Director, Pamela, was responsive and helpful if you have any questions regarding your concerns while you are abroad, changes to your homestay, and travel suggestions. However, I did not like taking the Spanish courses in Chile, coming in as a graduate Spanish major, because I thought it was not worth my time, for example, learning the greetings and grammar. If you're a beginner, I would recommend this. The professors were great, but I would have changed this if I had the chance to start over and started early with the internship. On the other hand, I liked the part about learning Chilean Spanish, the names of their food, and their culture. I thought it was helpful compared to grammar in Spanish. Overall, I enjoyed my time in Chile. I loved my time there!