FAQs Archive

Q: Can I get school credit for this?

Since ILP is not affiliated with any university, you must arrange all credits directly with your university. Most universities encourage a semester taking classes off-campus whether that’s through online classes or through other methods. We suggest working with your university’s Internship Coordinator to see if an ILP semester would qualify. You can often also work with your academic or department advisor to discuss adapting your ILP service as an internship or to fulfill credit requirements. Some volunteers even take a few online classes during their semester abroad. If you go that route, don’t overdo it … The beauty of ILP is that it is not a study abroad, but a service abroad, which is a very hands-on experience. Generally taking more than about 6 credits can be a lot of work to complete while you are abroad. You will only be teaching half of your day, but there are so many things to experience that you probably won’t want to use all of your free time abroad doing coursework in your apartment. If you need to take credits in order to volunteer with us (for academic, family, or other reasons) we support you doing so! Just remember that credit cost to your university is in addition to the ILP program fee. Since credits are arranged directly with the university, payment for them needs to be made directly to them.

Q: Do you have any shorter trips?

No, all of our trips are 3-4 months. We want this to truly be a life-changing experience for you and believe that a full semester abroad is needed to accomplish that. A trip that is 1-2 weeks would be really fun, but in our opinion, it’s just not the same experience as living abroad for a few months! Also, you'll be teaching children while volunteering with our program and we've found that there's a bit of a learning curve to teaching with our methodology. Time spent with the kids is much more effective and impactful for them when you're there for more than a few weeks.

Q: Can married couples go?

Yes, yes, and yes! They add tons to the chemistry of the ILP group and often become sort of a big brother and big sister to the group. Currently, a few of our locations do not have housing to accommodate a couple (however, the majority do). These locations change according to the semester and have a few stipulations so it’s best to talk to your ILP representative about which current spots are a good fit for you and your spouse. This blog post also goes into detail about locations where we can typically work with married couples. Our program is not a good fit for married couples with children.

Q: Can I volunteer with my friend?

We love when friends go together. When you apply, there is a section where you can let us know if you have any friends who you would like to be in your ILP group. We often have discounts for referring friends as well. Give us a call or talk to your ILP representative to see what our current referral discounts are.

Q: Can anyone volunteer?

While we would love to send everyone who wants to serve, right now we are working with native English speakers, from the U.S. and Canada. ILP volunteers are typically between the ages of 18 – 25. It is open to married couples, but not a great fit for those with children.