IPENG offers an exciting Summer session program to Argentina, one of only two summer programs to Spanish speaking countries!  In the program to Argentina, you get to stay in Buenos Aires for six weeks and immerse yourself in the Spanish language and the Argentine culture.  It was a great time, and I recommend that if you have any interest in studying abroad, start this summer with Buenos Aires!

For the first four weeks, you will spend from breakfast until lunch at the Universidad del Salvador.  These weeks are an intensive course in Castellano/Spanish to give you some formal education during your study abroad experience.  In addition to the morning course, there are sometimes afternoon activities.  Your Spanish class will be determined by a placement test you take at the beginning of the course, and I think everybody in our group found it helpful.  While the course is challenging and immersive, the teachers are sympathetic, and of course you can improve your Spanish by doing just about anything down there.

For the final two weeks, your program changes from a college course into real-world business visits.  I myself was not sure what to expect when we began the business portion of the course, but it turned out to be mostly interesting and not too daunting.  Your entire IPENG group is driven to various businesses, usually one per day, and you take a tour which provides you with information about the company the and industry.  During my program, we visited many businesses related to many branches of engineering, so some days proved more interesting than others.  In general, however, it is an interesting experience.  I found that the representatives of the businesses were friendly and were happy to talk not just about their business and industry but also about Argentina and the ways that Argentina and the United States differ in business, academics, and politics.