Perks Of An ILP Semester Abroad
Find Yourself While Helping Others
Grow — Get all that comes with lots of new adventures and experiences. Living in a different country is bound to push you out of your comfort zone.
Share — There’s a reason ILP is a group-centered experience. Your personality and unique talents are something your students and your group of fellow teachers benefit from.
Discover — Step back from school, work, and life in general to figure out what comes next for you. While abroad, we’ve had volunteers decide on a new major, choose a career path, and come back from their semester with more focus and direction.
Give — Whether it’s in the classroom or volunteering in the Orphanage Program, you have so much to share. Along with the opportunity to learn English, the one-on-one attention you give is a gift many kids need.
Live In + Explore Another Country
Travel — Backpack Europe, go island hopping, trek up countless volcanoes, and more.
Live Like A Local — Rather than spend a day or two here as a tourist, you’ll really get to know your new home, create relationships with locals, and experience another way of life. Before you know it, this country feels like your home away from home.
Learn — You have enough time to really dive into the culture. Learning a new language, joining in on celebrating local holidays, or taking a cooking class can be a part of your experience.
Explore — You’re only volunteering part-time, with free time each day. Volunteers also have weekends (and vacation days) to explore your city or even different countries. Learn more about what that looks like here.
Build Your Resume With An Internship Abroad
Get Experience — Supplement your education with firsthand experiences. Visit world-class museums, ancient ruins, and historic palaces in person. Talk about a hands-on humanities internship!
Get Credit — Talk to your university about getting school credit (or maybe a teaching internship credit) during your ILP semester abroad.
Get A Break — Take a much needed break from school to step back and spend time helping others. An ILP adventure fits in nicely into your summer break, or defer your spring or fall semester for your trip.
Get Ahead — Stand out on any job or grad school application by mentioning a semester of volunteer service for kids abroad. Or, see if you can count this as an English internship, education internship, or other college internship.
Make An Impact
Help — You’ll be making a difference by teaching English or giving love and support in our Orphanage Program.
Volunteer — Spend quality time with each of your kids for a few hours each day. Find other service projects if you’d like to help even more.
Influence — Volunteers are looked at as role models, giving you the chance to change perceptions and bridge the gap with the people around you.
Connect — Meet the locals, hang out with your ILP group, and create relationships that will last a lifetime.
Get More Than Stamps In Your Passport
For many of our volunteers, this is their first time getting on a plane, leaving the country, and being away from their family. Jumping out of your comfort zone to immerse yourself in a foreign culture for four months can be a very challenging adventure. But you know how the hardest experiences are the ones that encourage and nurture your personal growth the most? We’ve seen so many impactful experiences that go deeper than the highlight photos you see online — living abroad for a semester is bound to provide you with those kinds of opportunities.
