Art & Mexican Culture: The Oaxaca Residency

This program was excellent! The Arcos directors were very good. I really liked my teachers, and the homestay family was very kind. I highly recommend this experience to future students—it is the best way to spend your summer! Remember to wear sunblock and a hat.

The directors were fun and knowledgeable, and classes offered great content with nice teachers. My homestay host was wonderful, cooking the best food and offering kindness and humor. While adapting to a new language and environment was challenging, the benefits—like feeling inspired by local culture and making lasting connections—were immense. Oaxaca will always feel like a second home.

Antonio was an incredible director—funny and great with everyone. The classes were excellent; I loved my teacher and appreciated the easy option to switch to a harder class. My homestay, Martha and Alvero, truly felt like family. I made lifelong friends and significantly increased my Spanish knowledge. Be open to meeting people and apply yourself to the language.

My host mom was lovely. I did the painting course, and the teacher was super nice. My director was super friendly and always helpful! I am now comfortable navigating this city as well as taking public transportation. This is a great program to stretch your wings with.

The greatest benefit was interacting on an almost fulltime basis in Spanish. I really enjoyed the amazing food and learning how to convert money. The best parts were learning the lay of the land in Oaxaca and studying with people from all over the world. Highly recommended!

My daughter did the Arcos Oaxaca program. It helped her to grow in the areas of independence, language skills, fearlessness, love of cultures, and respect. DO IT! It was amazing. SHE LOVED IT. So much so that I already signed her up for next summer with Arcos in Spain!

I went to Oaxaca for the 4 week program. I did some traveling before and after so it ended up being about a 6 week experience. The program itself was awesome. We had awesome host families who were super kind and welcoming. Our directors were very nice and down to earth, and the city (our campus) was so beautiful and filled with culture and history. Our program did a great job of exposing us to all of it. My favorite part was the “culinary” program I was in. It was the first group that had ever done it and it was by far my favorite part. We would go on little field trips every day to restaurants, peoples homes, new villages, markets. So many cool places. Each place we would make a dish or few and then eat them! The hardest part for me was the social view of it. I didn’t click with really anyone in my program. I felt myself being more drawn to our directors then the students. I was the oldest in the group which played into it but if I would do it again I would have probably waited to turn 18 so that I could have gone with the older group.