Andégo Internships Abroad

It’s hard to imagine that this time last year I was beginning my gap year journey and now I am writing about it in hindsight! This past year has been fun, exciting, scary, hard, sometimes lonely but at the same time filled with so much love. I couldn’t have anticipated all the places this year would have taken me. Honestly, going into it I thought teaching English would be a breeze…how hard could it be, right? There were definitely many challenges that came with teaching that I had to take on as I went along, but so many rewarding moments. I loved all of my students and I couldn’t have asked for a better group. But standing in front of a bunch of teenagers waiting for you to teach them something was incredibly daunting at first and I doubted my ability to even do so. Then slowly, day after day, week after week, and after every funny, silly and endearing conversation with my students, what seemed impossible became second nature. On top of that, I was fortunate enough to make a group of amazing friends who I will never ever forget. There is something so special about the friendships you build during these types of experiences. We’re all so far away from home and in a weird and exciting place in our lives so they quickly become like your family. We travel together, experience things for the first time together, eat, laugh and cry together and make beautiful memories. This experience is something I will never regret and I feel has changed me forever. I learned new things about myself and did things that I never thought I would or even could do, that I will now carry with me into the future. I can’t wait to tell these stories to my family and friends in years to come.

I spent my gap year in Annecy, France, working as an English teacher. Teaching English as a 19-year-old and living in a foreign country on your own presents its own challenges, but the skills and confidence I developed will serve me in my future endeavours in college and beyond. I had an amazing host family with whom I still stay in contact and I was also able to travel to 11 countries during my vacations and summer! I encourage everyone to take a gap year if they can; it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for personal growth and this program is a great option!

I spent the year in Annecy, France with Andégo. I was working at a school teaching English to 4th and 8th graders as well as working as an RA at the high school boarding school. I spent the weekends with a local host family which offered a chance for me to be completely immersed in French culture and language. Working at the school gave me real world experience and a chance for me to feel like a part of the local community. I’m very grateful for my year off and the opportunity Andégo provided. I did a lot of research on gap years and found Andégo’s to be unique. I wasn’t able to find any other program that offered a paying job with the opportunity to live in a host family. Living abroad is not always easy and my experience wasn’t without times of difficulty or homesickness, but overall I had a great time and wish I could go back!

I think that my experience was unique simply because of the amount of things I was able to do. I had visited France before, but that was all. A visit. This year I was able to immerse myself with everything that was available around me, and this let me have countless unique experiences. To be in a different country with such a particular position and background opened doors to meeting people and discovering places I had and hadn't heard of before. For future Andégoites, I would recommend to simply do everything you can: Meet as many people as possible , get connected to your community and to other Andégoites, see as many places as possible no matter how obscure, and to get far away from your comfort zone, because that's the best way to truly discover things. It's truly the experience of a lifetime organized by Andégo, and the experience gained from the year is truly priceless and will make you change and improve in many ways. The connections made are widespread and strong, and the immersion in the country and culture make your French level skyrocket, along with a consciousness of the world around you. It expands your world, in a way.

My experience was unique in that it was quite a rocky year, unfortunately. There were some hiccups at the beginning of the year where myself, the school, and Andego had very different expectations of the English Language Assistant Position. While Andego and I were anticipating working with the English teachers in the school and creating language immersion activities for the children, the school I was assigned expected me to function as recess surveillance/discipline, a cafeteria helper, after school surveillance/assistance, and classroom assistance. These tasks were often given to me and my fellow Andegoite without instructions or help from the school staff or teachers, which resulted in an extremely stressful, overwhelming an utterly confusing experience from the very first day of school and onwards. Andego was incredibly helpful and involved in the process of resolving the situation, but due to difficulties in communication, the school's unwillingness to make changes, and an unsavory attitude adopted by my other Andegoite towards the circumstances, it became a lengthy process. It wasn't until that Andegoite had quit and months had passed that my schedule and duties in the school changed, in late January. Even with those changes put in place, my activities and expectations in the school were better, but nowhere near the wonderful, English-based teaching experience promised by Andego that other Andegoites were experiencing in other schools. For that reason I do believe that I am an outlier among the kind of internship experiences Andego can promise. Despite these hardships, or perhaps because of them, I had a formative year abroad that I have grown and learned a great deal from. If my experiences in the school gave me grit, patience, and increased blood pressure, then my experience of Paris gave me art, friendship, independence, peaceful contemplation, and an appreciation for some excellent food and wine. I can't accurately say going back in time if I would do the program knowing what I do now, but I can say that I am very glad that I did and don't regret that I stuck through it all either. Although there were times that I wanted to, I have a hard time blaming any member(s) of the Andego team for the tough times during the first half of my year, since I do believe they were doing their best to figure out a solution. The third party communication method definitely made things trickier, and the school was quite stubborn as well. Although I was not privy to it at the time, I can easily understand how the behavior of my fellow Adegoite affected how things proceeded as well. (Maybe a bit more in orientation about cultural communication norms?)

During my year abroad, I experienced so much more than I had ever anticipated. One of my biggest takeaways is that it will not always be easy, but that is indeed the power of this year. I found myself struggling to keep up with the french language as well as the culture shock and as opposed to this being a negative aspect of the adventure I allow it to remain a very special snippet of my life where I could grow such an immense amount in such a short period of time. At the end of the year, I had hundreds of kids coming up to me to give me art and letters which is now safely kept in an overflowing folder in my room; they gave me hugs and words of appreciation for the work I had done, even parents approached me to tell me that their kids were crying because I was soon to be leaving. I do not think anything can really be as rewarding as this. Throughout that year I learnt that life does not often give you things and you must go out there and find happiness for yourself. Meeting people my age was not as easy as it is in school when everyone wants friends and everyone is at the same place in life. Instead, I bonded with my co-workers who were some of the most caring and generous people I have yet to meet and they would recommend events to attend in town or cities to visit on my Wednesday's off. I was very lucky to have two girls in the program who lived close to me. We took it upon ourselves to make Wednesday our adventure day where we would go visit a new city in France and during the holidays (which are very numerous in france), we visited new countries. I had the chance to visit family and friends who had moved away and travel the cheapest I may ever be able to travel in my life given the proximity I was to all these amazing countries. I nearly missed a few flights, trains you name it, and I got lost in many countries only to find myself at a beautiful lookout spot or market that just happened to be there right when I needed a quick snack. I stayed in hostels where people kept me up snoring and I also met friends who would share their stories of travel as we sat on a grassy hill by a ravene. I find myself to be the kind of person who says "during my year in France..." at most any opportunity I can and I'm sure people are so sick of hearing about it but I have so many things to share and I know I will be telling these stories for years and never tire of it.

When I went abroad, I didn't really know what I wanted out of the year besides a change in almost everything I knew. My year in France definitely gave me that. I was a little far from the rest of the interns maybe because of that I really had time to really discover who I was when I was alone. I think I grew so much, personally and professionally. Because I was far, I really grew on my own, meaning there were ups as there were downs. I might have benefited from more check-ins or I might have said everything was fine anyway. I worked with people I really liked and people I liked less and I dealt with it. It's good to work with people you don't like to know how to deal with them in the future. I also built a wonderful support system. At first 5 families seemed like a lot but in the end it was a good balance because of the off chance that I didn't like the family, I knew it wasn't for 3-4 months. I also got to meet more people that way. I met restaurant owners, vineyard owners, teachers, clothing branch managers. I traveled to 3 of the five points of France. All because I lived with more people :) People I know I can go back to and be safe. I wouldn't be the person I am today without. It made me more social and that has helped me in class and out. I talk to my professors a lot more than I thought and I have a wonderful group of friends because I'm better with people. I have such respect for teachers and other educational staff. I'm so much more comfort in my own skin, I sort of feel as if I can accomplish anything now. :) If I had to give some advice, don't be scared. Go and adventure! Who knows when you'll have this chance again :)

The decision to intern abroad with the Andégo Program was the best one I’ve made yet. To say that I am heartbroken that there was an expiration date would be a gross understatement. This program opened up so many doors for not just myself but my fellow friends from the program. We got the opportunity to build relationships with our students and our co-workers, as well as the host-families we were placed with. Also, having the opportunity to explore other countries was an added SUPER bonus. I can’t speak for all the other Andégoites in this aspect as I don’t 100% know their experience, but I got to travel with the 2 other interns in my region to 3 different countries, as well as numerous parts of Paris in exploration and food searches, and that was amazing in itself. To have other you can relate to and share adventures with was gratifying. These are connections and relationships I know I will have for life. But of course, it wasn’t all roses and daisies. In the first couple months I questioned my choices and wondered often if I’d made a mistake, and there were plenty of days during the year when I just felt out of sync with everything, my family, my co-workers and just my surroundings in general. And though the check-ins with Andégo and my family helped, I feel like it was a learning experience that needed to happen on my own, in order to understand that sometimes it’s just life, and not everything will be as perfect as we expect it to be. So I would say to someone that is considering this program, it’s okay okay to ask as many questions as you want and be as cautious as you need to be a well, also, try not to put too many ‘what if’s’ I to your thoughts. Don’t even expect it to be the most perfect experience of your life, either. Just go with the flow, because there will for sure be days you don’t expect to overcome, and things you didn’t think you’d need to deal with. But those days will be few and far between, and with them you gain a little more knowledge of yourself and the world around you, with a little French cherry on top! xp

During the 11 months that I spent participating in this internship, I visited 6 countries, learned how to take on the role of a teacher, made lifelong friends, made professional connections, learned how to be a good roommate, how to balance social life with work, and learned who I want to be. While there are many challenges that come with living abroad, it is also an invaluable experience that I encourage everyone to take part in at some point in their lives. While I was initially nervous to make such a big life change directly out of high school, I quickly adapted to the French culture and lifestyle in order to immerse myself as best as I could. Traveling was something I found easy to plan throughout the year as I could simply take a train 20 minutes away from where I lived, and there was a new place to discover. Being open-minded is very important when taking part in an experience like this in order to really explore a new place. I really enjoyed solo traveling for the first time but I also think it was great to find friends to travel with who were interested in similar experiences. Finding a good group of people is key to making an abroad experience work. My colleagues were incredibly helpful and welcomed me to their school. They helped me throughout the year both in and out of school settings. I still communicate with many of the teachers I worked with even after being back in the US. Teaching was something that didn’t necessarily come easy to me when I first started. I did a lot of lesson planning and tried to figure out how to cater towards different age groups. By the end of this program I realized that the “fake it ‘til you make it” mentality really worked for me. Faking the confidence I didn’t have in front of a group of 30 plus students led to developing real confidence in my lessons by the end of the first few months. I found that as long as my students were having fun, asking questions, and learning at least one new thing each day, I felt that I was doing my job well. Collaborating with other interns and teachers was something I also found to be useful. I think the biggest thing that I took out of this year was learning more about myself and what I want to do with my future. Before I left for France, I had no idea where I wanted to go next or what I was going to study. While in the end, I did realize that I don’t want to be a teacher, it was still great to participate in this program. The most valuable things I learned were how to become independent and how to adapt and be open to change. Overall I am extremely happy with how my internship year went and I would do it all over again the same way if I had to. I think the pros of this program are that you get to immerse yourself in a new culture, as well as become a part of the culture. You meet new people and make valuable connections, while learning how to take on a new role. If you know you want to become a teacher this is the perfect program as you will learn so much about the role early on. It was also a great way to take a gap year while earning a stipend, being able to travel, and learn new things every day.

I met many amazing people and was able to learn a lot about the French culture. One thing that I learned that made my experience more unique was how important protests were to the French citizens. I was able to participate in a lot of demonstrations for things I believed in and was able to travel around France to partake in them with my friends. We went to Lyon for a few protests and also hiked in the mountains to bring awareness to problems with climate change there. I was even able to play my trumpet there for people and they danced and everyone had a lot of fun. The boarding school was a wonderful place to gain some freedom while still having the benefits of provided meals, and many people around. It was also nice to stay with a host family on the weekends to experience a more familial atmosphere and learn things from them. It was difficult being alone in a foreign country, there were not many opportunities to meet people, I had to really make the effort to go out and find people. That was easier though as there were always a lot of people around Annecy. Once I found a good group of people I was able to hang out with them every weekend, travel and have a lot of fun. This experience was incredibly valuable to me in terms of personal development and growth. I became a lot more independent and am more outgoing and confident now. I am comfortable exploring on my own and love meeting new people and experiencing new things. I could tell that this trip changed me when I got back and one of my friends immediately said that I seemed more mature. When traveling on your own and living in a foreign country, I would say it definitely makes you more mature. I am very grateful to have had this gap year and I learned so much from it. I would highly recommend this program because I found it a very valuable experience that everyone should do if they have the opportunity to.

I truly don’t know how many more good things there are to say about Andégo Internships Abroad. This program gave me the opportunity to completely change my life and surround myself in the dream life I always hoped I’d be brave enough to embark on. From Robert Zenk’s generous offer of resources, time, and support, to the surprise of finding out what city I’d be placed in, the entire application process, the internship, and everything up until now will be a year with Andégo that I will highlight as one of the best years of my life, for the rest of my life. The opportunity that Andégo gave me to go out and tackle real world challenges (i.e. interacting with your boss… but in a foreign language?!) and also experience the “vie française” that I’d be craving to explore for years helped prove to me that I am capable of so much more than I thought, and I am so much more confident and strong than I’ve ever felt before. From walking down the cobblestone streets of Bordeaux with a croissant in hand, to going to late-night French music festivals with newfound friends, to having my sixth-grade English students give me secret notes that say “You are the best teacher!” in French, my gap year with Andégo was truly a blessing, and I highly recommend Andégo to anyone who is even slightly considering taking a gap year. Trust me - it will be worth it.

My trip was full of firsts; from haute cuisine, to high speed rail travel, to my first time living alone, I was inundated with all sorts of things that I'm still processing and looking back on in amazement. As soon as I stepped out of Annecy's train station to try and find the Priest that was to give me a ride to my host school, I was immediately drawn up and out. The summer colors on the mountains, the bustle of people, the beautiful architecture, all flooded my frankly unprepared brain with excitement. Once I was shown the amenities in my dorm room that I'd be staying in during the school week, I didn't think it could get much better. But then they showed me the cafeteria. I was well fed, well-housed, and well worked-- emphasis on well-worked. After taking about two weeks to get situated and to begin helping with all of my assigned classes, I was working with French kids aged 10 to 15 for about 35 hours a week, not including the time it took to prepare presentations or other materials for the classes. Included in the 35 hours was also work in the dorms of the boarding school, and that took up most of my evenings. This work ranged from inspecting rooms for cleanliness once a week, to helping keep the order in the nightly study period and during unstructured time the rest of the night. This was a lot for an 18 year old me, and unfortunately, the work during the day at the school, combined with a good chunk of my evening being taken up, did leave me feeling a little isolated from experiences outside of the school and somewhat stressed. This was especially so during the first month, when I didn't have a host family to ease me into French life. However, once my French caught up a little bit to the native environment and a host family was found for me, feelings of isolation became dwarfed by my enjoyment of the town and the people in it. I was also decently paid, which made things easier for myself and those I was with. In the end, my trip was cut short by mishandling of Visa troubles, which detracted a little from experience. However, it has been made explicitly clear to me that similar issues will not be permitted to arise in the future. Also, what I was able to do before my premature departure was extraordinary to such an extent that no amount of misfortune could mar the memory of having done it and the subsequent learnings and discoveries. From helping me learn not to eat too much unpasteurized cheese in a day, to helping me walk the lit streets of Paris at evening time, to helping me learn I can do much more as a single person than I ever thought, this internship simply left me a better person for having participated in it. So regardless of potentially taxing work environments and Visa complications, I would still say with certainty that I heartily recommend this program.

The Andego program offered me something I never would have thought would ever happen to me in my life. I never would have thought I would be going abroad. I am so happy and grateful that I was given the opportunity to go to France because now I have Friends all over Europe. I now have a family to go back to in France. I made life long friends who I can now call family. Also now I speak French! My French is now so good that French people think I am French! Teaching was so much fun as well! My most valuable memory would have to be when my students began to speak English while I spoke French to them. Overall a very great experience and I would do it again! Merci Andego.