16 ~Extraordinario~ Internships for Spanish Majors Abroad

These Spanish internships abroad are truly increíble! ☆ 

It’s all too common for foreign language majors to assume your best career track will be either translation or education. There is absolutely nothing wrong with pursuing either, but no foreign language major should not feel limited to just these! Studying languages means you are learning how to communicate across foreign languages, cultures, and backgrounds, which can be applied to literally any career. As long as you’re talking, reading, writing, or interacting with people in any fashion, there’s a use for foreign language skills!

Where in the world do you see yourself enjoying internships for Spanish majors abroad?

Spanish majors can pursue tons of careers that have nothing to do with Spanish, and find ways to use their language skills on the side or every day to enhance their careers. You might end up being a veterinarian treating cows on farms run by immigrants or a marketer creating video campaigns for Spanish-speaking clients. Having some work experience—in Spanish no less—will greatly help you achieve whatever career goals you have. If you’re looking to really round-out your resume and give your career the boost it deserves, consider applying for internships for Spanish majors abroad!

Why intern in Spanish abroad?

Interning in Spanish abroad is the perfect way to enhance your education and work experience. Even for Spanish majors, sometimes your academic calendar (or other factors like finances) don’t allow for traditional study abroad. Getting an internship in Spanish is an even better way to build your language skills, and you’ll get the substantial bonus of legit work experience in a foreign country. Who wouldn’t want to hire you with that on your resume?

16 awesome internships in Spanish

With over 25 different countries across North America, South America, Europe, and even Africa where Spanish is the official language or heavily spoken—combined with hundreds of different program providers—you’ll definitely have your choice of internships in Spanish! To highlight just how much we believe you don’t have to be limited to teaching abroad or working as a translator during your internship, we have outlined our top internship picks for other career tracks!

1. Conserve natural beauty in Costa Rica with GVI

Is there anywhere better to go to conserve natural beauty than the heart of la pura vida? Join GVI Costa Rica for a unique internship opportunity at the Tortuguero National Park right on the Caribbean coast. Interns spend the first 12 weeks living and working with GVI staff in the Park completing intensive training in forest biodiversity surveys, jaguar camera trapping, nesting turtle research, and maintaining forest trails. Interns are then able to start their work placement within the Park or one of their partner organizations, and will return home with a wide range of mini-ecosystem monitoring skills and several certifications including First Aid. Sounds too good to be true that you can live and work in total beauty and gain so much valuable experience!

• What? Wildlife and natural conservation
• Where? Costa Rica
• More info: Read GVI reviews

2. Cook up a storm in Argentina with Menta Argentina

Despite what most people think, you won’t find salsa or margaritas in most of Latin America. Everyone knows the amazingness that is Mexican food, but what about all of the other areas with just as irresistible menus? Known for being some of the largest connoisseurs of red meat and fine wines, most Argentines seriously know their way around the kitchen. Like their name suggests, Mente Argentina focuses exclusively on meaningful travel in Argentina, so interns enrolling in their culinary arts internship program are guaranteed to be empanada and alfajores masters in no time. Interns are placed under the guidance of an internationally-recognized chef to study special event catering, running a restaurant and pastry shop, and obviously the most important thing: cooking like a porteño!

• What? Culinary arts, food business
• Where? Buenos Aires, Argentina
• More info: Read Mente Argentina reviews

3. Dance your heart out in Spain with Performing Arts Abroad

For those with an inner beat you just can’t stop, an internship in the home of flamenco sounds fitting! Come intern in Spanish in energetic Barcelona with a top-notch dance studio, and spend your weeks training with professionals, assisting with teaching courses for younger dancers, and contributing with marketing activities. Interns can either live in an international apartment or homestay with a local family, and the program includes Catalan cooking classes, museum visits and local tours, and, of course, local dance performances. Barcelona offers a diverse array of dance studios, schools, festivals, and production agencies for all genres of dance, making it the perfect place to expand your dance horizons! You won’t find other internships in Spain for English speakers as fun as these.

• What? Dance education, performance, marketing
• Where? Barcelona, Spain
• More info: Read Performing Arts Abroad reviews

4. Promote tourism in Peru with Maximo Nivel

Why learn about tourism from your local chamber of commerce when you can live and breathe it at world-renowned sites like Machu Picchu? Thanks in part to social media, the travel industry has been booming in recent years, giving lots of Spanish major career opportunities for those with the travel bug! Intern abroad with Maximo Nivel’s hospitality and tourism program, where you’ll be placed with a tour agency, hotel, hostel, or local tourism board to help with marketing, sales, operations, or customer service. Maximo Nivel’s program includes surf, scuba, and yoga certifications, making you an even more lucrative tourism professional!

• What? Tourism/hospitality marketing, sales, customer service
• Where? Peru
• More info: Read Maximo Nivel reviews

5. Become the next Elle Woods in Chile with Adelante Abroad

Thinking about becoming the next big-wig bilingual attorney? Taken the LSATs already and/or enrolling in law school? Adelante Abroad has the perfect internship program for you! Head to South America’s “Pacific paradises”, Viña del Mar or Valparaíso, to enhance your law degree with some international experience. Interns have the choice between working in maritime law, environmental law, international business law, or tributary law during their time in Chile, and add on an intensive Spanish language course to really get you off on the right foot. That plus the included local homestay or international apartment ensures interns return home with solid Spanish skills! 

• What? Law
• Where? Valparaiso or Viña del Mar, Chile
• More info: Read Adelante Abroad reviews

6. Grow your green thumb in Ecuador with World Internships

If you’re more in touch with nature than anything else and don’t mind getting a little dirty, head to Ecuador to pursue an agricultural internship! World Internships is a leading provider of agricultural sciences placements, and with a region like Ecuador where over half of its export revenue comes from agriculture, why go anywhere else? Here in Ecuador, intern in Spanish and get involved with permaculture projects on the coast or reforestation initiatives in the Amazon rainforest, and live for 4-12 weeks in Quito or the Galapagos Islands. Agriculture is one of the top professions in Ecuador, so interns will be working alongside highly-experienced farm owners, operators, and other agricultural professionals.

• What? Agricultural sciences
• Where? Quito and Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
• More info: Read World Internships reviews

7. Save the sea turtles in Cuba with The Science Exchange

Cuba isn’t usually the first place most people think of to do a sea turtle internship program...but considering it is an island in the Caribbean with increasingly lax border restrictions, Cuba should be on the top of your list! Interns with The Science Exchange can spend two months in Havana working at a sea turtle research center, collecting field data, writing research papers, and (the best part) hanging out with turtles! TSE even helps interns publish and present their research, with over 65% of their interns currently published with their mentors.

• What? Sea turtle conservation
• Where? Havana, Cuba
• More info: Read The Science Exchange reviews

8. Hit the runway in Spain with Fashion Week Internships

Fashionistas will surely know that Paris, Milan, and New York aren’t the only cities with style! Head to Madrid with Fashion Week Internships to learn all about the latest designs in Spain and work with some of the fashion industry’s top brands, retailers, labels, designers, manufacturers, and PR/event agencies. Whether you’re hoping to be the next Karl Lagerfeld or Anna Wintour, Fashion Week Internships will surely have a placement for you. What’s great about this provider is that internship placements start every month throughout the year, run from one week to several months, and can be combined with study abroad programs. Makes it easy to tailor your own experience in Spain!

• What? Fashion design and business
• Where? Madrid, Spain
• More info: Read Fashion Week Internships reviews

9. Break the big news in Bolivia with Projects Abroad

Not as popular with the tourists as its neighbors Peru and Brazil, Bolivia is the perfect place to go for a journalism internship to really get a taste of Latin American media and go beyond just what we see on CNN or Fox. Interns with Projects Abroad will have the chance to live in Cochabamba and work with international media agencies and print publications to rapidly gain insights into the international communications industry. Not only could you potentially be on-site for major news breaks, but you’ll have the opportunity to greatly enhance your own portfolio of written work to launch your bilingual journalism career!

• What? Journalism, media, communications
• Where? Bolivia
• More info: Read Projects Abroad reviews

10. Hone your business skills in Uruguay with Adelante Abroad

Anyone who has been to Uruguay will agree that the whole country is one of the best secrets of South America. Incredibly clean, safe, and the perfect mix of historic and modern environments, Uruguay has become a booming center of international business. Business interns with Adelante Abroad have the option to land a customized work placement in the areas of accounting, finance, sales, marketing, event planning, tourism/hospitality, customer service, and more for two to six months. To really enhance your language skills, Adelante offers two weeks of intensive Spanish classes at the beginning of every internship and gives the choice of an international apartment or homestay with a local family. 

• What? Accounting, marketing, graphic design, PR, general business
• Where? Montevideo, Uruguay
• More info: Read Adelante Abroad reviews

11. Make medical breakthroughs in Colombia with International Medical Aid

Humans in every area of the world need access to healthcare. What better region to take a deep dive into the world of human health than an incredibly up-and-coming area like Colombia? Anything involving medicine, healthcare, rehabilitation, or nutrition will definitely make for fantastic Spanish major career opportunities, so check out the internship options with International Medical Aid! With placements in international hospitals, local mobile medical clinics, public health agencies, and first responder programs, every type of wannabe healthcare professional can get some awesome work experience. Regardless of if you just want to learn the basics of nutrition or become a full-fledged bilingual surgeon, IMA has an internship for you! 

• What? Medicine, health administration, health education
• Where? Armenia, Colombia
• More info: Read International Medical Aid reviews

12. Help solve immigration issues in Mexico with CGEE

One of the most important and relevant issues for today’s Spanish majors to get involved in is immigration. Anyone interested in working with Spanish-speaking populations in the US can benefit from an immigration internship in Mexico. Based in Cuernavaca, interns with CGEE will participate in an intensive program that includes customized work placement, Spanish language classes, and a homestay with local Mexican families to really study the issues around migration, immigration, globalization, race, ethnicity, socio-economics, gender, and sexuality. We love this provider so much that we even awarded CGEE a GoAbroad Innovation Award!

• What? Immigration and globalization
• Where? Cuernavaca, Mexico
• More info: Read Center for Global Education & Experience reviews

13. Get down to business in Barcelona with IES Internships

As an important economic and cultural hub in Spain, Barcelona is absolutely brimming with business internship opportunities. As a Spanish major, your skills will be tested here—as you probably already know, Barcelonans speak Catalan. Don’t be surprised if you pick up some new Spanish vocabulary purely through osmosis! By the way, this internship isn’t just fluff; interns with IES Internships will work 30-hour weeks for three months, learning all the ins and outs of their internship field (and there’s quite a few to choose from). Spanish major career opportunities will surely be abundant after your semester in Barcelona. 

• What? Accounting, business, fashion design, finance, and more
• Where? Barcelona, Spain
• More info: Read IES Internships reviews

14. Do social good in Ecuador with Projects Abroad

Spanish majors with a penchant for social work will love internships in Ecuador with Projects Abroad. Pro tip: You’ll want to enjoy working with kids for this one. Spanish major interns in this program will be spending their days working with a kindergarten, helping to provide children with support and structure. However, if you’re worried you’ll be out of your depth with this one, fear not—a professional social worker will be at your side at all times. Interns will be put up in homestays, providing ample opportunities to practice and perfect Spanish skills.

• What? Social work
• Where? San Cristobal, Ecuador
• More info: Read Projects Abroad reviews

15. Test your dental skills in Peru with Volunteering Solutions

It turns out that internships for Spanish majors abroad can even take you to the wild world of dentists! Volunteering Solutions provides opportunities in Peru to get a close look at dentistry in a developing country. No experience is required, so this could be an interesting one to throw yourself into and learn all about a field you’re simply curious about. Spanish majors will be put to the test with all kinds of new vocabulary, providing opportunity for substantial growth in your Spanish skills. And hey, don’t worry! Volunteering Solutions will ensure that you get to snag a peek at the famed Machu Picchu as well.

• What? Dentistry
• Where? Cusco, Peru
• More info: Read Volunteering Solutions reviews

16. Expand young minds in Spain with i-to-i TEFL

Honestly, internships with i-to-i TEFL are no-brainers for Spanish majors for so many reasons. Sure, you’ll be teaching English, but the communities around you will be primarily Spanish-speaking, which means there will be no shortage of opportunities to hone your skills. Plus, this one is lengthy (nine months), but it’s paid. That’s right—PAID. You will have dozens of chances to meet and get to know other interns like yourself, and after nine months you’ll know Spain like the back of your hand. Bonus: i-to-i TEFL provides a TON of program support, like visa assistance, airport pick-up, and orientation. Keep this opportunity in mind for a post-graduation getaway that’s lucrative to boot.

• What? Education, linguistics
• Where? Barcelona and Valencia, Spain
• More info: Read i-to-i TEFL reviews

[Browse ALL Spanish Internships Abroad in a Variety of Locations]

These internships for Spanish majors abroad rule

Pack up your Spanish skills, hobbies, and interests, and find the best internships in Spanish for YOU!

There is so much more for Spanish majors to pursue than just translation or teaching, so you should never feel limited in your career goals! Whether you want to be a doctor, artist, engineer, farmer, or haven’t made your mind up yet, there are practically unlimited internships for Spanish majors abroad. Especially if you are/were not able to study abroad during your time in school, having an internship in Spanish is just as effective (if not more so) at developing your language skills, plus you’ll have the added bonus of real work experience. Snag an awesome internship in Spanish today and say hasta la vista to boring careers!

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