Bulgaria & Greece: Pre-Occupational & Speech Therapy program

Overall, I would rank this trip as an 8/10. The trip was more geared towards OT students than SLP students. This was mainly due to the language barrier. I wish that in the future this trip would have more translators to help accommodate to speech needs in the facilities. The hotel that we stayed in during our time in Bulgaria was super rough. It was very gross and it didn’t feel like it was being cleaned very well, specifically the beds. It was fun to meet people during the trip and hangout, but I wish that I would have been able to long before the trip began. The information for the trip was only sent out 6 days before departure. I was hoping that it would have been sent out 2-4 weeks before departure. This would have been nice for meeting other people travelling. This is more of a general suggestion, but I hope that Therapy Abroad can update their website! When I first came across the site, it looked like a scam. It’s just a website with several broken links and it requires you to put down $1,000 for the deposit. If there’s anything you guys can do to make the marketing better, please do!

Each excursion/tour was so well planned and executed. I loved all of our local guides and cannot praise them enough for everything they did for us during this trip! I loved that our group also had students at varying levels in their OT/SLP journeys. As a rising fourth year undergrad student, it was very helpful to hear about some real life experiences from grad school and beyond! Overall, this trip was an amazing experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world! I enjoyed every single minute of it and felt that I’ve been able to build such strong connections with some wonderful people. Thank you for this amazing opportunity!

Throughout my entire therapy abroad experience, I can’t say a single negative thing. Everything was meticulously planned, and I felt incredibly safe throughout the trip. Personally, I went on the Bulgaria and Greece trip this past summer, and it exceeded my expectations. I gained hands on experience, collaborated closely with licensed professionals, and oversaw various aspects related to speech-language pathology, including the use of AAC devices and swallowing evaluations. I couldn’t recommend it enough!