<p>DD majoring in PR or Advertising with Marketing or International business and WiTH a SPANISH MINOR ( finished AP Spanish in jr yr of HS)</p>
<p>What programs are available for study abroad in Spanish-speaking countries???</p>
<p>Also, does anyone have experience using the NMF scholarship money for study abroad???</p>
<p>My son is also a Spanish minor and needs to travel abroad to complete his international honors program, so we’ve been looking into this.</p>
<p>There are hundreds of different programs offered in a variety of Spanish speaking countries.</p>
<p>First your daughter needs to narrow down what she wants to do abroad: there are programs that offer internships abraod (although for many you pay to participate and don’t get paid as you would in a typical internship), there are service trips abroad such as the Alabama Action Abroad programs, there are UA courses abroad such as the UA in Spain program or the program in Cuba, there are programs that offer short-term intensive courses abroad, or there are opportunities to directly enroll in foreign universities.</p>
<p>Once your daughter begins to narrow that down, then she needs to narrow down when and for how long she wants to go abroad. Does she want to do an academic year or semester abroad, is she looking for a summer program, does she want to do a short-term program which may only last a week or two.</p>
<p>Then she needs to get an idea where in the world she wants to go. There are a lot of Spanish speaking countries and they all have their positives and negatives. My son spent 6 weeks in Mexico as a high school student, but they relocated their program due to safety concerns and there are areas of Mexico that it would be advisable to avoid right now, but many others that are affordable opportunities. UA has an established program with Cuba and when will students ever in their lives have another opportunity to take a trip like that. There are a variety of options in Central and South America… But then even in Spain there are pluses and minuses to different regions - does she want to be in a large city such a Madrid or Barcelona or a smaller town. Some regions speak with different accents or don’t speak traditional Spanish and may not be where she wants to go.</p>
<p>To begin researching different opportunities you can go to studyabroad.ua.edu and click on ‘find a program’ and then select any Spanish speaking country and get a list of opportunities. If none of those seem to be a perfect fit, a Google search will bring up others, but the UA study abroad site is fairly comprehensive and a good place to start.</p>
<p>We learned this year that (at least in the UA Honors at Oxford) a student must have a college GPA to be admitted to the program. D was fortunate to be admitted from the waitlist after fall semester grades came out. If you are hoping your student will go abroad in the summer after freshman year, that is something to consider or at least ask about. I think taking a CC class in the summer would allow a student to have a GPA for this purpose. The Oxford program is full and there are students on the waitlist, so having a GPA would have definitely helped (the program app opens in the fall). </p>
<p>As far as NMF scholarship, I can’t answer to that except to say it appears you would just get to apply the 2k (or whatever the amount is) to whatever program your student does. There are many, many students who study abroad without NMF funds. There are other scholarships that are available. My daughter has applied for some but she hasn’t heard back. </p>
<p>The study abroad (UA) site has lots of ways to search for programs. </p>
<p>[The</a> University of Alabama](<a href=“Education Abroad – International | The University of Alabama”>http://studyabroad.ua.edu/)</p>
<p>My D will be doing the Oxford program this summer. On the application there is a box to check where funding will come from and 1 option is to apply the NMF 2k to the program fees. I think once your D actually attends UA she will have opportunities to talk to profs, program directors, and program participants about the different Spanish programs. My D is a Spanish major and plans on talking to her profs when she looks into where to go for Spanish speaking travel abroad.</p>
<p>“We learned this year that (at least in the UA Honors at Oxford) a student must have a college GPA to be admitted to the program.”</p>
<p>This might not be a well-known fact, but as a UA Early College student, our HS junior received an invitation from the Honors College to participate in the UA HC Oxford Program this summer. Early College students earn a UA GPA since they are taking actual UA classes, though I doubt you’d be able to receive $$ to fund the trip.</p>
<p>bamagirls, I think it is a new requirement. D had corresponded with Dr. Halli in the fall after he sent out an email talking about the program and asking who was interested. Later, he seemed as surprised as we were about the “must have a college GPA” requirement. I suppose it makes sense though because there is a minimum required GPA and until the fall grades were posted, D had a 0.00 according to DegreeWorks. :)</p>
<p>Yes, but UA Early College students do have a UA GPA.
Sorry, I apparently edited my post to add that distinction at the same time you were composing your post.:)</p>
<p>TXArchitect: D1 applied the $2000 study abroad stipend when she went with Alabama at Oxford. You <em>can</em> use the a semester of your NMF scholarship towards a semester study abroad program, but I’d suggest making sure that you’re getting a semesters worth of credits for that (i.e I wouldn’t use a semester of scholarship to “only” get 6 or 9 credits.) D1 has a friend who spent his sophomore year in China and he was able to use his NMF scholarship.</p>
<p>Reminder (and excuse me if the designations have changed for newer students; I don’t know if IHP still operates as a separate program on DegreeWorks) if you’re going to do a summer study abroad and hope to obtain the IHP credential, you will probably need to do 2 summer abroad programs as the website says under requirements:
Study abroad for one semester or two summer terms
a. Semester: Fall, Spring, or Full Summer
b. Summer term: Interim, Summer I, or Summer II</p>
<p>TXArchitect…D is going to Ecuador this summer w/ Alabama Action Abroad thru the Honors College. There were three trips offered to HC kids. Ecuador & Portugal required Spanish 352 be completed prior to traveling. D is taking that now. Belize was English speaking.</p>
<p>D is also taking a Minor in Spanish. She has decided to do 2 Summer abroad programs in each Summer after this Summer. That will fulfill her International Honors requirements. The one program that everyone highly touts is one w/ a popular Spanish professor that goes to Spain (I believe Madrid). The professor’s family lives in that town and he is able to really help the kids immerse in Spanish culture.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that Spanish is spoken very differently in different parts of Spain. D does not want to go to Barcelona because of the dialect. LOL I have no idea…just repeating what she has to say.</p>
<p>D loves the Spanish classes she has taken so far. Also if your student is Greek I highly recommend the Alabama Greek Mission trip. D loved using her Spanish to talk to the kids and was one of only 2 students who was fluent. Made for an easier connection w/ the orphans. These kids go to Nicaragua for a week right after finals 1st semester and build a house for a family along with throwing a Christmas party for the orphans of the Mission. They fundraise all year and next year hope to build two houses. Very worthwhile organization and has changed D’s perspective. If you search Alabama Greek Mission you should come up w/ the website. I know I cannot post it. PM me if interested.</p>
<p>* D1 has a friend who spent his sophomore year in China and he was able to use his NMF scholarship.*</p>
<p>That is so cool!!!</p>