Description

I. Guayaquil
You will spend a semester, summer or year developing your Spanish skills; studying Ecuadorian history, culture, and society at Universidad Espiritu Santo; living with an Ecuadorian family; and serving 15-20 hours a week in an Ecuadorian community agency. Your volunteer service immerses you in the culture and deepens your understanding of Ecuadorian society in a way that goes beyond that experienced in traditional study abroad programs. It also facilitates your mastery of Spanish.

* Academic Study:
The program is based at Universidad Espiritu Santo (UEES). Semester students take three required courses for a total of 12-15 credits; special arrangements are made for the second semester for year-long students. A transcript is issued from Universidad Espiritu Santo upon successful completion of the program.

* Volunteer Service:
With nearly 2.5 million inhabitants, Guayaquil is Ecuador's largest city and the country's principal ocean port. Like many cities in South America, Guayaquil has experienced tremendous population growth in recent years; parts of the city such as its long waterfront have undergone impressive redevelopment while other areas of the city have become vast tracts of squatter housing lacking the most basic urban services. Urban growth is also putting significant pressures on unique, delicate ecological reserves that provide homes for endangered flora and fauna. These many challenges form the framework for the community service agencies in which IPSL students are placed.

You will serve 12-20 hours a week in an established Ecuadorian agency. Some of the service placements are in the invasion communities of rural and poor migrants. Areas of service may include:

- teaching English as a Second Language
- health care through medical and dental clinics
- health education
- tutoring and recreation for children and teens
- community and economic development.
- You might aid homeless (street) girls; assist in projects for the disabled; work at an adoption agency for abandoned infants; teach in primary or secondary schools; assist in a hospital; or serve in other areas.

II. Galapagos/Quito
You may choose one of three concurrent programs, with either a biology focus or a social science focus. After an initial period on the campus of the Universidad San Francisco in Quito and volunteering in an urban environment, you will attend a full schedule of classes at the Galapagos Academic Institute for the Arts and Sciences (GAIAS) on Isla San Cristobal, learn from world-class faculty, and engage in service related to island ecology and/or the local island community. All program courses are taught in English.

* Academic Study:
The program is based at the Galapagos Academic Institute for the Arts and Sciences (GAIAS), an arm of the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, a highly-regarded university in Ecuador. You may choose one of three courses of study:

Biology Focus: Evolution, Ecology, and Conservation in the Galapagos

Designed for students of the life sciences, this program examines the central concepts of evolution and ecology and their application to conservation biology.

Biology Focus: Marine Biology

Social Science Focus: Politics, the Environment, and the Galapagos

Designed for students of the social sciences, this program is designed to examine different issues related to the social and economic considerations relevant to the management of fragile environments. Students will explore the impact that people have on fragile environments and the ways in which conflicts and issues created around these concerns can be resolved in just and peaceful ways.

The semester-long programs each consist of five intensive courses, all taught in 3-week modules and worth 3 credits each, for a total of 15 credits. You will take four of the offered courses, with the fifth course consisting of the academic IPSl Service-Learning course where you discuss, analyze and write your service. A transcript from the Universidad San Francisco de Quito is issued upon successful completion of the program.

* Volunteer Service in Quito may include:
- working at a school with children who alternate street work with school attendance
- assisting children from the countryside with their school work and family issues
- working at a city maternity and family planning center with young women becoming mothers
- working in medical centers or agencies addressing healthcare issues and education
- working with people with disabilities
- working with artists in a special program of education through art
- educational and didactic child support in a public children's hospital
- teaching in a pre-school
- serving at a day care center for elderly people living on the streets
- teaching marketable job skills to adults
- working in human rights.

* Volunteer Service in the Galapagos may include:
- conservation
- introduced species control
- waste management
- pest control
- reforestation with local species
- sustainable agricultural practices
- working with the local community in day care centers, elementary and high schools
- teaching in languages and mathematics in the community college