IES Abroad Santiago – Health Studies

My abroad experience in Chile was one I will never forget. The program allowed me to work on my Spanish while focusing on the health care system of Chile. I learned how the Chilean health care system functioned and was able to do clinical observations to see how it was implemented in a public hospital. We observed some very interesting medical cases. It was something truly amazing to do and it was an experience I probably would not have gotten here in the US at the extent that we did. Being immersed in the Chilean Culture was also something so amazing learning about their holidays, their people, and their food was so exciting and for a short period of time, I felt as if I had adopted their culture as my own. In regards to my program and the students, Everyone was so wonderful and I met some incredible people who I will never forget. The bonds we created and the trips we took together will never be forgotten and will always be something that I remember and look back on as one of the most amazing experiences of my life!

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My experience abroad was one worth recounting. This program is very comprehensive and true to what they advertised. I learned a lot of medical Spanish which I know will be valuable in the future, had the opportunity to participate in clinical observations and work with a community-based organization. Overall, this program helped me to reach my goals for my study abroad experience and boosted my confidence with speaking Spanish. The program center staff were all very accommodating and truly made themselves available to ensure that we each had a great experience. Their inclusion of field trips and cultural experiences enhanced my understanding of Chilean culture and increased my appreciation for the diverse terrain that Chile has to offer. Study abroad definitely pushed me outside of my comfort zone and I would encourage anyone seeking to do just that to participate in this program, especially if you are considering a career in the healthcare field.

This program was more incredible than I could have imagined. I loved the life and energy in the city of Santiago, and lived a 5 minute walk from the IES center. My classes and professors were fantastic and taught me so much about culture, medicine, and helped me to improve my Spanish greatly. I loved being able to shadow medical professionals in the public hospital- I even befriended some surgeons and got to play tennis with them on the weekends! The program allowed a lot of free weekend time so my friends and I took advantage of every opportunity to travel and explore all of the amazing nature and experiences Chile has to offer like surfing in Pichilemu, skiing in the Andes, sand boarding in the Atacama Desert, summiting a volcano in Pucón, and hiking through Patagonia after my program finished. I made some incredible friends, both from in my program and from the class I took at the local university with Chilean students. My abroad experience was the greatest experience of my life and I learned so much about culture, medicine, Spanish, travel, and about myself while in Chile with IES Abroad.

I learned so much on this program. I now know more about the Chilean health system than I do about the health system in my own country. I got 60 hours of hospital observation, which included seeing many surgeries up close and the birth of a baby! I made friends with people I know I'll be friends with for the rest of my life. Everyone on staff at the IES center was amazing and cared deeply about us having a good time, and my host family was great too! I'd recommend this program to anyone who wants to improve their Spanish, learn about medicine in other countries, and have a summer full of adventure.

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Studying abroad in Santiago, Chile was one of the best choices I have made in my life. I am a neuroscience major, but have always had a desire to become fluent in Spanish. For that reason, I decided to study in the Health Studies Program, to learn more about the health system in Chile, but also to fully immerse myself into a Spanish-speaking culture. This program allows students to take a seminar where they can choose between shadowing in hospitals and clinics, or intern at a Public Health organization in an underserved community. I decided to intern at the Public Health organization, and through that experience, was very inspired by the theory of Popular Education, and experienced first-hand the power and importance of community health. This experience for sure inspired me so much, and made me think a lot more about the type of career I would like in the future. In addition to the educational aspect of the program, Chile was a great country to study in with the goal to learn Spanish. Even living in the capital city of Santiago, it was rare that you would enter a restaurant or mall and find someone who could, and would, speak english to you. I also loved the nature that Chile has to offer, and simply by traveling outside of Santiago to these natural environments were very inspiring as they are beautiful settings to both challenge yourself and reflect on life.

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My study abroad experience was the most incredible semester of my life. My journey certainly had its emotional ups and downs, but with help of my amazing friends, host family and IES Abroad staff at the Santiago center, I was able to navigate any troubles that came my way and truly enjoy every opportunity and experience I was given. My courses had a decent amount of homework but far less than my courses in the US. To be fair though, this study abroad semester was a bit of a break for me; I only took courses that helped towards my Spanish minor and my pre-health concentration (versus focusing on my biology major). I gained confidence in my Spanish speaking and learned how to connect with anyone, anywhere. The IES Abroad program helped structure my academic learning and allowed me to take a course at a local university, an amazing experience that I will forever be proud of completing. There is so much I could talk about ranging from the amazing empanadas, cooking disasters with my host family, hiking up snowy mountains, and getting to meet family I have (through marriage) in Chile. Every amazing experience was only possible through IES Abroad, and I would go back and relive the entire experience, moments good and bad, twenty times over.

The unique offering that drew me to this program was the Health Studies component. During my semester, I rotated around different units at Complejo Assistencial Sotero del Rio. My Spanish for Medical Practitioners class was complementary to that internship. In terms of living situation, I lived in an apartment in Las Condes. The IES Abroad school house is very quaint, and located in Providencia, in close proximity to many restaurants and cafes. Santiago, Chile, is a beautiful location, and there was so much natural beauty to explore! I had a great study abroad experience, and I hope to go back and visit Chile again in the future.

My time in Santiago, Chile was one of the greatest yet hardest experiences of my life. I came in with a pretty good level of Spanish but quickly realized that classroom Spanish and a background of 7 years in class isn't real life Spanish... especially Chilean Spanish. I remember being afraid to say things incorrectly at the beginning, but by the end understood better that it really is okay to make mistakes and was more comfortable asking questions/really trying to understand the language in its entirety. My host family was great, and although we started at a slow place with getting to know them, by then end I felt like family. I also learned that it takes a lot on the student's part to build that relationship, and I feel like it is extremely valuable to build those because the home is where you get a lot of good practice with no pressure. But again, the way you feel about making mistakes is ultimately up to you. The more you accept yourself for them, the more you will learn and improve. While the Spanish learning, cultural learning, traveling were great experiences, I had a major health issue going on. I share this to demonstrate how safe and cared for I felt the entire time that I was dealing with this issue. If you have a health condition, please don't let it stop you from studying abroad. I have a complicated story with too many details, but I made 1 hospital visit and 3 doctor visits (all in Spanish) but was accompanied by program advisors who made me felt very comfortable and understood... despite any potential language issues. My host family was very caring and always asked how I was feeling, and the school even let me take a week off from classes. It was hard, my days were long and tiring with this issue... but would I take it back and not go? No way. I will never regret my decision to stay because I made long lasting relationships, seriously improved upon my Spanish skills more than I ever would staying at my university, and got to experience another part of the world that functions slightly differently from what I'm used to... and these are experiences I will carry with me forever. Chile is an amazing country that is highly dismissed. If you have the opportunity to go, do it. You won't regret it.

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If you really want to practice your Spanish, come to know a Spanish speaking culture that many don’t hear much about but is so rich in history and fabulous people, then I would recommend this program to you. Santiago de Chile is a fabulous place to be whether you are an outdoorsy kind of person or more of the city life, Santiago has it all. IES does a fabulous job of thinking through everything and are prepared for the good the back and the ugly. Being a part of their program, the onsite administration and teachers make you feel like you are their number one priority. They genuinely care about every person and want to make sure they have the greatest experience abroad. They will help you with anything and everything; if you are struggling with your host home, trying to find a class to take at the local university, maybe you want some travel suggestions (literally one woman on staff helped everyone call hostels/busses/you name it if we needed help). They go above and beyond and love welcoming you into their home. For me, I have danced ballet professionally in the states and wanted to make sure I could find a good company while I was abroad to keep up my dancing. One of the staff introduced me to a company and I actually had the opportunity to perform on a well known stage for a paying audience in CHILE! (That was a dream come true). Looking at the academics, the courses are wonderful and they offer a nice variety. It was slightly hard to find specific courses for some people at the university, though this may have been due to the strikes at one of their partner universities making it unavailable for us to take classes there. I was able to take a ballroom class filled with 50+ Chileans and 3 “gringas” including myself (to Chileans anyone not from Chile can be considered a gringo/a). This was a great way for me to get to know many friends, I would highly recommend trying to find a dance class even if you don’t go to Chile because there is something about learning basic dance moves that is fun and breaks barriers allowing friendships to flourish. I got the opportunity to also be in an observations program which was honestly one of the main reasons I chose this entire program in the first place. It is just that, observations. This is very helpful for really any pre health professional because you really get to dive into seeing how other health care systems work and actually see different facilities in another country. I will let you know, this is strictly observations, you are not allowed to take vitals or anything. But most health professional schools want you to have some type of observation hours so it is a win win. I got the chance to study with the two lovely ladies who have already posted reviews about this program (Monica and Nina hey guys!). Hopefully in reading our reviews you can see different experiences of the same, literally the exact same program (Fall 2016). Speaking of Monica and Nina, I loved that IES was a program that pulled students from all over. I got the chance to go out on a limb, goto a country that I had never been to, with no one I knew, and had the time of my life. We had 19 people in our program and I loved the opportunity of getting to know every single one of them. There were a few from the same schools but otherwise we all were in the same boat and that to me was an experience I was looking for. One last plug, specifically for the Fall semester in Chile. Though it is our “Fall” it is their Spring. EVERYTHING happens in Chile at this time, you get a “spring break”, there are Fondas which are basically Chile’s State Fair, and a few other holidays. The weather though cold in the beginning is lovely towards the middle and end. If all of this doesn’t convince you... then take a look at these photos!

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Hi everyone, I studied abroad in the wonderful Santiago, Chile for a full fall semester. One of the immediate differences you will notice are the seasons- they’re reversed from the northern hemisphere! That being said, my host mom paid extra attention when I first moved in to make sure I was warm enough at night and ate plenty of fruits so that I wouldn’t get sick from the sudden change in climate. And this was just one example of how cared for I felt in Santiago. My host family made sure I not only had my basic living needs met, but also that I felt comfortable in their home as part of the family. I shared almost every meal with them and got to spend time with their friends and extended family. The IES staff in Santiago also made me feel very cared for and looked after during my time there. Academically, I participated in the health studies program where I attended a class called “Spanish for Health Care Professionals” and observed health care professionals in a hospital setting. In class, we learned how to talk to people about nutrition, pain, and insurance as well as study vocabulary for different items that are found in a healthcare setting. This vocabulary was incredibly useful during my clinical observations where I visited various private clinics and hospitals as well as public hospitals and a Ruca, which is a hut used by the indigenous group for alternative medicine. During my four months, I never traveled outside of Chile, but I did travel to the northern region to see the driest desert in the world, the Atacama Desert, and get to backpack for 6 days in Patagonia’s Torres del Paine.