Not entirely on topic of college, but bc lot of knowledge here: HS class of 2025 daughter is determined to do an immersion Spanish program in Spain next summer (Summer 2024); she has a camp counselor commitment through the third week of July, and we are struggling to find programs that offer 3 weeks to a month, mostly in August.
Any recommendations here? I feel like I’ve looked at many well-known programs and they generally offer two options, one mostly in June and one mostly in July. Or just options for July. Help?!
The summer dates for next year aren’t up yet, but has she looked into the Concordia Villages programs? They’re in the US, not Spain, but it’s an immersion program that’s gotten some good reviews on the board: Summer Language Immersion Programs | Concordia Language Villages. If interested, you could reach out to them to see what the August offerings might look like.
I highly recommend AIP in Valencia. My twins, also HS class of 2025, have participated the last 2 summers. They stayed 4 weeks their first summer and then 5 weeks this past summer. They loved Valencia and the program. They’ve made friends with kids from all over Europe and the U.S. as a result of the program. You can book directly with AIP online and choose your weeks. We found the cost to be very affordable. My kids stayed in the dorms. Home stays are another option. The kids participate in classes in the morning and then have planned activities in the afternoons and weekends (sailing, museums, surfing lessons, rafting, city walks, etc.)The city is so easy to enjoy with great public transportation and is also easy to get around on foot. The dorms are walking distance to a great beach. There was another program in Malaga that we considered but ended up choosing Valencia due to the locale. I recommend booking directly with any program rather than using a third party company. One thing to keep in mind - the kids have considerable freedom there compared to the U.S. in terms of exploring nightlife and alcohol. My kids said there were some issues with some kids not being ready to handle that freedom.
I can’t help you with immersion camps in Spain, but I can add that my daughter studied in Spain for a semester in tenth grade and it was a wonderful experience for her. Her host parents spoke no English and she was in a regular Spanish public high school. The kids took her under their wings and helped her a lot. She made a conscious decision NOT to hang out with any Americans. She was dreaming in Spanish by the time she left. That was almost 10 years ago and she’s still in contact with some of the friends she made there. She was in Cadiz and she fell in love with the city.
I sent both my kids for 2 consecutive summers to Madrid with Don Quijote. Since I lived in Madrid, I sent them there. My daughter had a friend who went to the Malaga camp and enjoyed it there as well. My kids were there for a month.
Did they do the Spanish cultural immersion program or one of the camps? I’m not entirely sure what the difference is yet, but Spanish cultural immersion is limited to 14+ and the camps serve a broader array of ages. Cultural immersion seems to have slightly less supervision? My kid will be 17.5 so I think she’d probably want the older group and she cd handle less supervision…
We did this when my kids were starting 8th and 6th grades, respectively (8 years ago) . The camps have different age groups with varying degrees of freedom. My kids were younger but there were older kids that had much more leeway. They were in a university dorm for a month with classes during the week and excursions on the weekends. They had kids from all over the world but there were also a ton of Spanish kids doing different programs. My kids still have friends from their time there.
