Want to hear from a college student who interned abroad in Costa Rica? We recently caught up with AIFS Abroad participant Nick from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), who spent his summer interning abroad in San José.
Read on to discover how Nick’s experience in San José with AIFS Abroad helped him develop valuable career skills and make meaningful connections!
Choosing an Intern Abroad Program Destination & Term
Deciding where and when to intern abroad can be challenging for many students and young professionals (our team can help with that!)—especially when you consider all the incredible AIFS Abroad programs available to you. For someone like Nick who was interested in an accounting internship in Latin America, San José was a great choice:
“I chose Costa Rica for my internship program because I had [previously] studied abroad in Argentina [and] liked the Latin American region and learning Spanish. I saw Costa Rica as giving me yet [another] new opportunity to do both, except this time for an internship.”
Choosing a summer intern abroad program is an excellent option for anyone who needs to be on campus during the school year, like Nick:
“I chose the summer term because that was the most logical time to have an internship without interrupting classes during the spring and fall semester.”
International Internship Experience
Interested in what an internship abroad actually looks like? While schedules and responsibilities may vary, you can rest assured that AIFS Abroad will place you with a trusted local company or organization where you can gain hands-on professional experience and develop key skills in your internship’s career field. Hear Nick go into more detail about his internship in San José:
“The company was a local municipality located in the small town of Curridabat, southeast of downtown San José. For my internship, I was scheduled to work 5 days a week at the Auditing Department on a main project where I would evaluate the greatest risks facing the Auditing Department itself and how to best mitigate those risks, and then present my completed project and risk analysis at the end of my 2-month internship.
For my typical internship work week (Mondays through Fridays), I showed up to work each day around 9 am, took notes from the Global Auditing Norms, worked on my main project as well as some mini-projects… and then let myself out around 3-4 PM when no more work was required of me for the day and my supervisor felt comfortable. I would sometimes tell my supervisor, Sofia, [about] an [AIFS Abroad] excursion I wanted to go on that happened to be [during the week], and it was always OK with her since my internship program with AIFS ensured I would still get to have immersion opportunities and a [good] work-life balance.”
Below, Nick explains his internship projects in detail:
“For my main project, I used a Microsoft Excel template given to me by my supervisor to help me list the 15 greatest risks facing the Auditing Department, with their causes, their effects, and their severity levels. I then used a heat map to help present which risks had the greatest probability/impact, and then came up with the best ways to mitigate each risk on the final sheet of the Excel template. I completed the main project and its sections quickly, so I was able to ask my supervisor for mini-projects to help the department further, as well as helping to broaden and demonstrate my own skills further. Such mini-projects included creating flowcharts for the various mitigation implementation processes for mitigating each of the 15 risks, creating a PowerPoint on the Global Auditing norms, and doing further research on all things auditing (with a focus on Costa Rica-related auditing issues to keep it relatively local).”
Building Professional Skills Abroad
An intern abroad program provides countless opportunities for professional growth. Not only will you develop soft skills that are valuable across a wide range of fields, but you will also build career-specific skills that stand out on your resume. Below, Nick lists the top three skills he feels he gained from his internship abroad, in addition to some other benefits of his program:
- “The ability to communicate in Spanish in a workplace.
- Risk analysis.
- How to optimize Microsoft Excel, Visio, and PowerPoint to best present my data analysis.
[My internship program] counted as a required co-op for graduation on my transcript, helped boost my resume and candidate profile, and made me more confident in my ability to give it my all in any new role and forge lifelong relationships along the way.”
Forming an International Network
Interning abroad offers a unique chance to build personal and professional networks that span the globe. Forming relationships with locals, colleagues, and other international students and young professionals can open doors to future opportunities and meaningful connections. Hear Nick go into more detail about the impact of building connections abroad:
“I built both professional and personal connections abroad by talking to people in my workplace, connecting with them on LinkedIn, and giving/gaining feedback. My advice to future participants would be to do whatever you can to build both types of connections in your internship, because it’ll help you succeed in your role, give you social interactions, and can even make you long-term friends.”
Mentorship Abroad
Every AIFS Abroad internship placement confirms that you’ll have a qualified supervisor at your internship company or organization. This ensures that you have someone to mentor you, guide you through your responsibilities, and support your professional development. Below, Nick describes his experience with his supervisor in San José:
“Working with my supervisor, Sofia, was a blast. She was the supervisor of a team of three other full-time auditors and second to the formal head of the Auditing Department, and she was a very good mentor in monitoring my progress, giving me directions, feedback, and tips, and making me feel that I was fulfilling my purpose at the Department.”
As Nick explains, one of his favorite memories from his time abroad is when he visited his supervisor’s family in the countryside:
“One core memory that I will never forget from the experience was getting to spend a day with my supervisor in the countryside, getting to meet her family, see her family’s farm, and meeting her 2 wonderful Frenchie dogs. I loved getting to meet [her family], learning more about my supervisor’s life outside of work, and since it was the second-to-last day I was in Costa Rica, I was able to say goodbye to her. She was very special to me as a friend and a mentor.”
Language Learning
You are not required to be fluent in another language for most AIFS Abroad internship programs abroad. However, for people like Nick who are seeking an immersive language experience, this is a great opportunity to develop advanced foreign language skills:
“In Costa Rica, most internships were in English for my fellow interns, but my learning experience in Spanish that I had noted in my application and resume helped me place in a Spanish-speaking work environment. I had some communication barriers at first, but I was able to work through them through continued practice, self-advocacy, and listening skills… Over time, I was able to… fully engage in casual, non-work-related friendly conversation with colleagues.”
Housing
All AIFS Abroad programs include safe and central housing in your host city. Hear Nick describe his experience at a student residence in San José:
“During the program, my housing accommodation was at… a dormitory/apartment site for local students in Costa Rica that all of the AIFS Interns stayed at. I liked that I was able to live in an apartment with one roommate in my program and (for some of the time) another roommate who was a student outside of AIFS from Spain, and we were able to coordinate things together, cook some meals, and be harmonious.”
Excursions
AIFS Abroad programs also include trips and excursions that take you around your host city and country with other program participants. These are incredible opportunities to travel the country with a knowledgeable guide and learn more about the local history and culture. Below, Nick explains one AIFS Abroad excursion where they visited an Indigenous tribe and learned from one of the tribe members:
“[During our visit to] the indigenous tribe, [we learned] about what [the] tribe’s traditions and beliefs were and how they view the world from the past, the present, and the future… this gave a very authentic and nuanced view of nature/society from an Indigenous perspective. The [Indigenous] man told us that his tribe wants mutual peace/respect with the outside world, and about how Indigenous Peoples’ commitment to conservation/self-preservation in Costa Rica gets overlooked in the national government narrative of an eco-friendly society/government. Hearing him talk about such a wide range of important topics relating to the way of life of his people helped create a more nuanced outlook of Costa Rica, and this is important because [other program providers] might not [offer] this diverse range of perspectives.”
Why AIFS Abroad?
From valuable inclusions like safe and central housing to social and cultural activities in your program destination, there are so many reasons to choose AIFS Abroad. Like many other students and young professionals who have gone with us, one of Nick’s favorite things about AIFS Abroad was our team—the people who helped him prepare for his program and our on-site staff, who supported him in San José:
“AIFS Abroad resources that really stood out were the staff, because they were super helpful in letting us know how to prepare for the abroad experience. The AIFS Logistics, communicating with us about and providing us with fun excursions, and talking about the AIFS Alumni opportunities at the end of the period. Pablo, Jesenia, and Karla were all super helpful at the AIFS San José Center.”
Thinking about interning abroad like Nick did in Costa Rica with AIFS Abroad? We’d love to help you start your journey!
Here at AIFS Abroad, we know a thing or two about helping college students and young professionals intern abroad. Our programs come with many valuable inclusions (which really takes the stress out of planning!), such as coordinating your housing and providing things like cultural and social activities, excursions, comprehensive insurance, 24/7 emergency support, on-site staff, and more. With AIFS Abroad, you’ll take comfort in knowing you’ll have support throughout your entire experience abroad.
