School Language and Service Immersion Program 2024
Announcing our 2024 School Immersion Travel program in the Mayan highlands region of Lake Atitlán, Guatemala. The program is built around service and global citizenship experiences in rural communities. Daily Spanish language learning is available as part of the program.
Since 2006, ViviendasLeon has operated a service learning travel program, bringing more than 2,000 volunteers to Central America. School service travel supports our organization’s mission: Alleviating poverty by empowering and equipping rural communities to become the agents of their own development. The program is well structured, combining cultural and language immersion and hands-on experiences in community projects. Students return home with a deeper understanding of the complex world beyond our borders.
Our program is rigorous and organized. Students spend mornings and evenings together with their local host family in Panajachel or San Juan la Laguna, then spend each day working in rural communities to support the progress of projects, and learning about development first hand.
In 2024, we will begin our food security farming program in rural communities. We will be working with 20 families to build their first farms. These farms will produce as many as 30 types of fruits and vegetables, diversify their diet, improve their nutrition and increase their family income.
Program details:
1 and 2 week trips may be scheduled beginning January 1 - June 30, 2024
Program cost:
$1,500 per person, per week. All in-country expenses included. Airfare is not included
What is a typical day like:
Wake up and have a typical breakfast with your host family.
Head to the rural community to work side-by-side with community members on their project.
Lunch in the community
Continuing work with families and community activities,, then return to the Lake.
Evenings are spent over dinner with host families
Occasional visits to nearby places of cultural and historic interest
Past schools in our program:
San Francisco Friends School
The San Francisco School
The Drew School
The Branson School
Cathedral School for Boys
Lick Wilmerding High School
Balboa High School
International High School
The Field School, Washington DC
University of San Francisco
Clarkson University
Learn more:
Read our trip update: "School and Family Travel in Guatemala 2019"
Register:
If this sounds like a program that can fit your needs, submit your interest form here.
“ViviendasLeon has supported us throughout our process. Without their help, we would not have been able to overcome the barriers of poverty. They continue to help families like our own, and I hope their impact benefits other people in rural communities who need it.”
Oralia Ramirez - mother, farmer, beekeeper
The latest report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations on undernourishment in Latin America and the Caribbean, shows an increase between 2014 to 2018, from 38 million people to 42.5 million people suffering from hunger.
Continue reading >We introduce participants to new ways of seeing the world as they embark on a service-learning experience that expands their awareness of local history and culture while participating in our international service program.
Continue reading >
