Guatemala Semester

Spanish Language & Community Engagement

A 3-Month Gap Year Program

Latin America Travel Program Group on Mountaintop

80 Days

Build Spanish language fluency: learn from local movements, and engage with diverse communities throughout Guatemala. For students interested in intentional community engagement, sustainable agriculture, Latin American history, and dramatically improving their Spanish language skills through classes and cultural immersion.

Guatemala is a living crossroads of Mesoamerican culture and staggering ecological diversity.

Communities shaped by both land and sea continue to adapt with resilience to shifting environmental and social landscapes. We invite you to step beyond the surface to learn through lived experiences: sharing daily life in rural homestays, engaging in personalized language study, contributing to community-led projects, and exploring grassroots movements shaping the region’s future.

ruins by river at sunset

Highlights & Outcomes

Build Language Fluency

Deepen Spanish through personalized classes and immersive homestays with welcoming local families

Meaningful Cultural Immersion

Experience urban and rural homestays for a deeper understanding of Guatemalan culture and daily life

Cultural & Geographic Diversity

Hike lush volcanic landscapes, stay in indigenous Mayan communities, and learn directly from local knowledge keepers

Hands-on Community Engagement

Support community projects while exploring responsible approaches to service and learning new skills

city by lake at dusk
line drawing of Guatemala

Your Journey Starts Here

Our travels begin in the colonial capital of Antigua, where we explore vibrant markets, hike coffee plantations, and start Spanish lessons. Traveling by Guatemala’s famous “Chicken Bus,” we pass sacred Lake Atitlán and settle in the small community of Pachaj for intensive one-on-one language study and homestays. Mornings are spent studying Spanish and volunteering with the Chico Mendes Reforestation Project, while afternoons we are immersed in local Quiché culture, helping homestay siblings with community recycling initiatives.

From Pachaj, we venture into the Cuchumatanes Mountains, where families share stories of Guatemala’s civil war, deepening our understanding of human rights, indigenous resistance, and lasting economic inequality. Living with Maya families, we explore ancestral knowledge through Independent Study Projects with artisans, farmers, and community leaders.

Our final leg takes us north to the Petén rainforest, hiking beneath howler monkeys and scarlet macaws in the ancient city of Tikal. Along the way, we engage in meaningful discussions with grassroots organizations tackling contemporary challenges. Through rural homestays, intensive Spanish study, and hands-on projects, students gain a deeper connection to land, culture, and the ongoing struggles and resilience of Guatemala’s indigenous communities.

Itinerary Example

Guatemala Semester

Itinerary Example
The following is a sample itinerary based on past courses; actual itineraries are dynamic and may vary.
  • Week 1-2

    group learning about plants
    people making food

    The semester begins with an orientation in the town of San Lucas Toliman on the shores of lake Atitlan. Here we spend our days getting to know one another, setting goals for our time together, and learning how to safely navigate new places and experiences. San Lucas is home to the Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute, where we learn about traditional agricultural practices and how they can help respond to many of the issues facing contemporary Guatemalan society. During this phase we practice Spanish, learn about cultural norms, try new foods and come together as a group.

    From San Lucas we travel north to the Cuchumatanes mountains and the town of Todos Santos. Here we dive into Spanish study while living with local families. Todos Santos is a very traditional community where many ancient customs are preserved. We learn about how traditional clothing is made, how food is prepared and what it’s like to live in a rural Guatemalan home. We learn about the traditional celebrations and beliefs of the highland people as well as contemporary issues like immigration and climate change.

  • Week 3-4

    girls shearing sheep
    group in front of corn field

    From Todos Santos we begin a three day trek through the misty highland mountains to the town of Nebaj. Along the way we camp at the homes of people who live off the land and traditional farming practices. By night we sleep in barns and alongside rivers and by day we walk through enchanting cloud forests and agricultural land. We end our trek in the Ixil triangle town of Nebaj. From Nebaj we transfer to the neighboring town of San Juan Cotzal. The Ixil triangle was a place of major focus by the army during the war in Guatemala and it makes a perfect setting to study the issues that led to this conflict as well as the process that has played out since the end of the war in 1996.

    In San Juan Cotzal we live with local Ixil speaking families and work alongside the women of the Tejidos Cotzal weaving cooperative. Many of the women of this cooperative came together after losing their sons and husbands during the war to help support each other economically. For over the past twenty years they have collaborated to create beautiful traditional weavings and share the profits of their work. As a result of this iniciative they have built a center for traditional weaving arts. We learn how to prepare traditional local foods at the center and we try our hand at backstop loom weaving! Our time in San Juan Cotzal closes with a traditional Mayan ceremony.

  • Weeks 5 - 8

    paddling in a boat
    Travel Program in Guatemala

    From Cotzal we will head south back to the shores of Lake Atitlan, this time settling down in our program base in the town of San Juan la Laguna. In this lovely tz’utujil community we have a program house, where students gather daily for lessons, workshops and independent study projects. Mornings are spent working one-on-one or in small groups with local Spanish teachers, and evenings are spent connecting closely with welcoming homestay families. During this period of the program each student will delve into an Independent Study topic of their choice, working with a local mentor to learn a craft or explore a theme of study.

  • Weeks 9

    Travel Program in Guatemala
    people exploring Guatemalan ruins

    During this phase of the course students work together as a group to collectively complete a large group challenge. This will most likely involve an expeditionary trip into the northern part of Guatemala where new landscapes and stories unfold. This phase invites us into a collective challenge: to step further into the unknown, live simply, and learn deeply from the places and people we encounter. For instance, in Nuevo Horizonte, a community born from the peace accords of Guatemala’s civil war, we live alongside ex-combatants and their families who have built a sustainable cooperative from the ground up. Here, students explore themes of memory, justice, and agroecology—helping with reforestation efforts, learning about organic farming, and hearing firsthand accounts of war and reconciliation. In other area of the north, the ancient forests of Tikal offer a different kind of immersion. Rising before dawn to the calls of howler monkeys, we ascend towering pyramids to watch the sun break over the canopy. Guided by local community members, we step into the world of the Classic Maya—exploring their profound knowledge of astronomy, agriculture, and sacred time.

  • WEEK 10-11

    pouring sap into waterbottle
    group cooking outside on open fire

    After visiting the north, our itinerary may journey east to the Caribbean coast and the town of Livingston, home to the Garífuna, one of the few Afro-Indigenous communities in the Americas. With roots tracing back to shipwrecked Africans and Carib islanders, the Garífuna have preserved a vibrant culture of music, food, and resistance. During our stay, we learn to cook traditional dishes like hudut, practice rhythms on the primero and segunda drums, and speak with elders and artists about the migrations that have carried Garífuna identity from Central America to the streets of New York and back again. Whether walking jungle trails, sharing meals with community hosts, or dancing to the pulse of punta music, we witness how culture is carried forward—alive and evolving, rooted and reaching.

  • Week 12

    people sitting on dock
    white church with blue sky background

    The final portion of the course is known as ‘transference’ and is the phase of the course where all of the knowledge that the group has gained is integrated into life at home. Transference is spent at an eco lodge outside of Antigua, Guatemala. Here we reflect on all the things we’ve learned and brainstorm about how to keep the lessons and experiences we’ve had alive and relevant upon returning home. We also take the opportunity to have lots of fun together, explore the colonial city of Antigua and appreciate our new friendships and connections before heading home.

Language Study

Spanish intensive instruction through daily small group lessons (2-4 students) for approximately 2-4 hours/day (~6 weeks total) taught by professional language instructors. Immersion through homestays, ISPs, and daily interaction with locals.

Homestay

Multi-week homestays in several communities in Guatemala pared with language and cultural immersion in diverse settings.

Social & Environmental Justice

Modernization and globalization, impact of education and tourism on indigenous culture, exploration of minority empowerment issues, sustainable agriculture, social justice issues.

Religious & Spiritual Traditions

The syncretism of Catholicism and Maya spirituality, Maya cosmo-vision, cycles of time, Latin American Protestantism, community based movements.

Independent Study Project

ISPs facilitated primarily in San Juan la Laguna. Multiple opportunities for study with local organizations and mentors. Options include traditional weaving and textiles, Maya spirituality, medicinal plants, sustainable agriculture, painting and the arts, and exploration of socio-political issues.

Learning Service

Volunteering at the Chico Mendes reforestation project, work with sustainable agriculture, collaboration with local NGOs and community based projects.

Rugged Travel

Bus, truck, and boat travel. Hikes to remote villages.

Trekking

Trekking may include introductory hikes through cloud forests, to Mayan ruins in the jungle, lake hiking, and non-technical volcano ascents, with a possible overnight trek.

Optional College Credit

To deepen your experience abroad, you may choose to enroll in one optional college-level course during the program. For those who choose to enroll, they will be invoiced for an additional college credit fee on top of the program cost.

Students who take a college credit course will receive an official transcript from our university School of Record upon successful completion of the program. Taking advantage of the college credit option may make 529 plan funds eligible toward the entire program cost.

Learn About College Credits

Through our School of Record, you have the option to enroll in one of the following courses for college credit:

  • COLS 191: Self & Culture in Experiential Cohorts
  • CTE 191: Introduction to Leadership Development
See Course Offerings

Meet a Few of Our Instructors

Experienced educators. Community builders. Life mentors. With deep regional expertise and local language fluency, our instructors are skilled at providing context for the student experience and building cultural bridges. We collectively draw upon personal networks to create opportunities for connection and guide students along their journey.

Meet Our Instructors

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