Learn Spanish, Explore the best of Central America and receive career development opportunities

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Program Overview
Life on the Program
Project Details
Volunteer Testimonials

Program Overview

Travel to the remarkable Mayan country of Guatemala, an amazing country featuring one of the best preserved and astounding examples of an ancient civilization in the form of Tikal. Based in the UNESCO-protected town of Antigua, you will learn and teach in Spanish on this internship, focusing on providing educational reinforcement while making a huge difference in the important early stages of young children’s development through your long term involvement.

Interns receive a continuous comprehensive training program that encompasses theory lectures, group study, lesson planning and teaching practice. This will give you a basic, holistic understanding of all aspects on which to build throughout your stay. Subjects included in the training are teaching, classroom management and lesson planning.

After the 12 week training phase conducted on our project in Guatemala you will start your work placement with a partner organisation or assist the GVI team in the operation and management of our project. With both pathways, you will work alongside professional teams, gaining valuable experience throughout.

Run by GVI’s in-country partners, Phoenix, operations in Guatemala have been ongoing since 2001, with Phoenix and volunteers providing an education to impoverished communities that would otherwise be out of reach.

After a successful internship, qualifying candidates may be given the opportunity to work for GVI or selected partner organisations in Guatemala or in other countries around the world where GVI operate. Field work positions can be paid or unpaid, range in duration from one month to one year, and availability varies. Qualification for possible GVI positions is at the sole discretion of Global Vision International.

Life on the Program

After your initial training week of 1-on-1 Spanish lessons, you will spend the majority of your time in indigenous communities outside of Antigua, undertaking training and teaching you own class throughout one full academic year.

As an intern, you are expected to plan and prepare effectively for your classes, manage current volunteers and help with the general running of the project. Your days can be long, leaving Antigua early in the morning and returning late afternoon, Monday through Friday.

In Antigua, you will live with a local host family in a basic but comfortable private room. Antigua itself is a vibrant town with access to restaurants, shops, phones and internet services.

Project Details

The relationship with the indigenous communities with which we work was established almost 10 years ago and in that time, Phoenix has grown to provide an education to over 600 children with the aim to improve standards of living through education.

All Phoenix projects are based on a 25-year cycle, whereby the youngest child attending school will eventually have their own family. Through the education provided and the better job opportunities that come with this, it is hoped they will be able to afford the education for their own children, making the project sustainable.

Your vital contribution will help work towards to the overall goal of having all children attend national school in both partner indigenous communities.

How this project makes a difference:

You will provide valuable assistance in the school and more importantly, continuity throughout the academic year. We track every child’s progress, so you will be able to see the direct effect you have had in their development.

This continued support and funding has enabled us to expand both schools, progress that sees children attending Phoenix schools performing within the top 10% in the country.