Language Immersion Frequently Asked Questions
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Literally any level of Spanish is welcome. We have had students who had never spoken a word of Spanish in their lives. These students developed a strong level of basic conversational ability that helped them get way more out of the remainder of the trip.
On the other hand, we’ve had students who were close to fluent in Spanish take part as well. These students reinforced their already strong conversational, reading, and writing abilities and also learned an enormous amount from their teachers about the local cultures, life in Peru, and more.
Whatever your level, you won’t leave disappointed.
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Just like in the main program, we try to allocate two blocks of time per day for training – in the morning and in the afternoon. Most students will use one of these blocks for running or biking, while using the other either to rest, spend time with their homestay families, or do a stretching, core, or yoga session.
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No. The focus of the SIP week is on language and cultural immersion and athletic training. Between the 5 hours per day of language instruction and training time, it would be squeezing too much in to try to also have a service project. Don’t worry – we’ll learn about and do a lot of work in the main 3-week program!
Also, it’s worth noting that Awamaki is a very cool organization that does do a lot of meaningful work in the Sacred Valley. From cultural heritage protection to women’s rights and advocacy, they always have great projects to talk about and you’ll likely hear about a lot of them during your time there.
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Financial aid is currently only available for our main high school programs. You can apply for that and read about it more here.
Many students have also had great success with personal fundraising through traditional fundraiser, crowd-sourcing, pledging, etc.
Lastly, you can always contact us if you have any questions or if you’re looking for more help.
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Yes! We’ve had students with just about every type of dietary restriction you can think of take part in this program. The families that work with us are accustomed to working with foreigners and can accommodate any type of dietary needs. Just know that the stricter your dietary restriction, the less variety you should expect. You’re unlikely to find things like gluten-free bread/pasta or soy-meat in a local Peruvian kitchen, but they’ll fill you up with something just as delicious
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Group leaders are there to make sure the program runs smoothly and be a resource for any issue that might arise. Group leaders and/or interns will meet you for your athletic training session each morning at your homestay and walk you back after. They’ll also meet you for each of your classes and walk you to and from school.
If something does go wrong during the homestay, each student will have a local cell phone which they can use to call the group leaders who are a short walk away and can come by at a moment’s notice.