IFSA Chilean Universities Program, Valparaíso

One of the program trips that IFSA planned for us was a trip to the souther part of Chile where we stayed with indigenous Mapuche families that we had been learning about in our classes. We were able to do an amazing hike in the mountains that has been the path of indigenous people crossing between Argentina and Chile for a long time. The peak of our hike was when we made it to the top and the top was the tip of a volcano!

Leaving was the worst thing about my entire year. I was able to increase my fluency, take major classes, and develop a life there. I tried surfing, rock climbing, acro yoga, and so much more. My host family and the Chilean community was so welcoming. In my second semester, the only time I spoke English was in phone calls to people back home because I had become so close to my host family, classmates, and friends that I was always speaking Spanish. I learned so much about myself, traveling, Chile, and other people, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.

My experience in Valparaiso with IFSA is something that is extremely hard to convey in text. I guess the first thing I have to say is that staying with my host family definitely was the highlight of my experience and I have to thank IFSA for organizing that. I learned valuable life skills and experienced so much cultural immersion. IFSA does an incredible job connecting international students with local chilean communities, in school and outside school. It's a crazy feeling that I don't know how to describe but I really felt like I was out there on my own and it was an absolutely amazing experience. I would have never learned as much as I did if it wasn't for my host family. They taught be about Chilean culture in a way that I could never learn in a class room. By simply living with them, eating with them, and talking with them, I felt fully immersed within two months. IFSA staff also had a major role in helping me get integrated into the chilean lifestyle. Mainly, finding the perfect host families. IFSA offered classes, food tastings, excursions, opportunities to see people speak and a lot more than you probably wont get anywhere else. For example, we got to travel to the South of Chile to live with real Mapuche families for a weekend. When would you ever have that opportunity in your life? One thing that I really loved about IFSA is that they treated you like an adult and expected you to do things on your own, but still provided all the support that you would need to get things done. After all, the only way to learn about a different culture is to live in it, and that's what IFSA allowed us to do. They didn't treat us like international tourists who just wanted to observe from an outside view. They know that we are students eager to learn, so they treated us like normal international students and helped us integrate as students, not as tourists. Students studying with IFSA really feel a sense of individuality, at home and at school, due to the amount of freedom that IFSA gives them. But at the same time, IFSA is always there for help, support, questions, or whatever it may be. Studying with IFSA gave me the perfect amount of freedom so I could learn on my own, yet also provided me with the perfect about of comfort, showing me that i am never actually alone with them.