New for summer 2023, Latin American and Latino Studies (LALS) Global Internship program adds to a growing selection of Global Internships that allow UCSC students to explore career goals, expand their professional network and skills, and gain real work experience by participating in an internship for an organization abroad.
Through the program, students have the opportunity to participate in a customized internship at an organization in Buenos Aires, Argentina or Barcelona, Spain related to human rights and social justice, community organizing/social work, education, journalism/research, and curation and preservation.
In each location, the program will offer facilitated excursions so that students engage in an immersive experience, exploring the culture and history of each location.
“The Global Internship program provides our students with another much-needed experiential learning opportunity as part of their undergraduate degree. While earning UCSC credit, students can explore their career goals, broaden their professional network, expand intercultural communication skills, and connect the classroom to the real-world workplace while abroad,” said Alice Michel, director of Global Learning.
Internships will satisfy one upper-division elective for LALS majors and are sponsored by an LALS instructor. While completing their internship, students write an analytical paper or produce another project agreed upon by the student and the instructor by the third week of the internship.
“We are very excited to offer this program to our LALS and Social Science majors. Through the LALS global internship, students will not only gain hands-on experience interning in their field of choice, but they will also have the opportunity to boost their Spanish language skills while interacting with their peers, colleagues, and host community,” said Ashley Bayman, Global Learning coordinator and advisor.
While this is the first year for the LALS program, the Psychology and Cognitive Science Global Internship, developed in partnership with the Department of Psychology, was piloted in summer 2022 with 32 student participants interning in Spain and Portugal.
In total, 66 students are expected to participate in both internships this summer. Global Learning looks forward to working with more campus departments to develop discipline-specific global internship opportunities for future summers.
Providing Global Learning Opportunities for All through the development of international internship programs is key to our Strategic Plan for Internationalization.