Panama: Community and Non-Governmental Organizations Internship
Get professional, intercultural experience as you intern at a Panamanian business or organization seeking to create change and find solutions to pressing 21st-century issues.
Program Highlights
- Complete a five-week internship with a local community organization, nongovernmental organization, or socially responsible business.
- Gain professional experience in a supportive environment.
- Develop your Spanish skills through in-class study, field exercises, and conversations with native speakers.
- Experience Panamanian culture and landscapes through homestay, travel, and hands-on activities.
- Customize the program to fit your goals by focusing on the field you're most interested in.
Please visit the SIT Study Abroad website for details on program courses (including syllabi), educational excursions, and housing.
Key Topics of Study
- Social, political, cultural, and economic factors that impact NGO work and community success in Panama
- Civil society, organization, and popular power in the Panamanian context
- Customized exploration of topics depending on your major (e.g., education, health, economics, environment, public policy, and many others) as they are affected and influenced locally by external forces including global macroeconomic policy, climate change, globalization, and other elements.
- Ethical considerations and consequences of interning in another country and culture
Internship
The internship will introduce you to community and nongovernmental organizations in Panama. Internship placements will mainly be at organizations in Panama City but also in other approved locations in rural Panama.
Throughout the five-week internship, you will keep a daily journal about your experiences and will have regular sessions with SIT faculty to reflect on your experiences.
In addition, you will submit a paper in which you describe, assess, and analyze what you learned during your internship. The paper will outline the tasks you completed throughout the internship, professional relationships you developed, and challenges you encountered and how you overcame them.
Internship Fields: Community development, indigenous rights, cultural preservation, environmental conservation, public health, communications, agriculture, sustainable business, and education.
Sample internships:
- Conducting health intakes in rural Caribbean areas
- Performing administrative/data tasks at an HIV/AIDS clinic in Panama City
- Teaching at a primary school in a rural mountain community
- Working at a national park like El Cope or PILA
- Helping out at a sustainable tourism company
- Compiling indigenous literature with a coastal advocacy group
- Collaborating on experimental sustainable agriculture with an NGO
- Assisting at an urban veterinary clinic
- Performing varied tasks at a major national newspaper
Money Matters
Be sure to discuss how study abroad costs are handled at your school with your study abroad advisor.
SIT tuition and room and board fees include the following:
- All educational costs, including educational excursions
- All accommodations and meals for the full program duration
- Transportation to and from the airport, and on all educational excursions
- Health and accident insurance
Scholarships
- SIT awards nearly $1.6 million in scholarships and grants annually.
- All scholarships and grants are need-based.
- Awards generally range from $300 to $3,000.
- The SIT Pell Grant Match provides matching grants to all students receiving Federal Pell Grant funding when it is applied to an SIT Study Abroad semester program.
- Contact the financial aid and/or study abroad office(s) at your college or university to learn if your school’s scholarships and grants and federal and state aid programs can be applied to an SIT Study Abroad program.
Contact SIT Study Abroad
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