
Build Spanish language fluency, examine models of political activism, and engage with diverse Mesoamerican communities and cultures.
open
five spaces
17-22
Tuition is all inclusive aside from airfare and insurance fees.
Rising out of the sea at a confluence of three tectonic plates, this causeway of cultures and ecological diversity is a focal point of change.
Today the communities sharing in this Mesoamerican heritage continue their legacy of adaptation, responding to rapid environmental and social challenges with innovative communal strategies. The Guatemala Semester takes a hands-in-the-dirt approach to understanding indigenous culture and collective life in Guatemala and Mesoamerica through extended rural homestays, one-on-one language study, work on communal farms, and a participatory examination of land-use, migration, and social justice.
Today the communities sharing in this Mesoamerican heritage continue their legacy of adaptation, responding to rapid environmental and social challenges with innovative communal strategies. The Guatemala Semester takes a hands-in-the-dirt approach to understanding indigenous culture and collective life in Guatemala and Mesoamerica through extended rural homestays, one-on-one language study, work on communal farms, and a participatory examination of land-use, migration, and social justice.
In the western highlands of Guatemala, over eighty percent of the population is indigenous Maya who maintain a legacy of rich cultural survival and community strength in the face of persistent external pressures. Living with hospitable indigenous families, working in el campo, and learning Spanish in personalized classes, we begin our semester with an experiential understanding of Mesoamerican culture and the legacy of conquest and resistance that has played out here for five centuries. In San Juan la Laguna, a Tz’utijil Maya community on the shores of Lake Atitlán, herbal healers, weavers, and community leaders share their knowledge on a range of topics through Independent Study Projects. From Lake Atitlán, we wind our way into the protective folds of the Cuchumatanes Mountains where local communities share their accounts of Guatemala’s thirty-six year civil war. Their stories help us understand the root causes of Guatemala’s colored human rights record, sharp economic inequalities and underrepresented indigenous populations.
Heading east into Guatemala’s tropical lowlands, we drop down into the Caribbean rainforest. In the Rio Dulce river basin, we engage in learning service opportunities with our friends at Ak Tenamit, an organization that works in remote communities to promote education with an emphasis on female empowerment. We also visit Livingston and the Caribbean coast, spending time with the Afro-indigenous Garifuna population. Conversations with local NGOs working in human rights, community health, and development help us gain an understanding of contemporary struggles for sustainable development and identity in Guatemalan society.
The final phase of our itinerary takes us across the border into the state of Chiapas in Southern Mexico, where we deepen our exposure to Mesoamerican culture and traditions of resistance. Here, at a great distance from the country’s capital, communities have long relied on local solutions to social and environmental challenges. In the face of political strife, civil conflict, and rapid globalization, local communities have joined together to come up with creative and revolutionary responses in the form of people’s movements, progressive organizations, and innovative technologies. While living in homes with local farmers and deepening our Spanish language skills, students learn about Chiapas’s history of revolution and resistance, climb mystic ancient temples, and explore the delicate encounter between past and present in this colorful and contested territory.
Through a rugged and intimate exploration of some of the most remote regions of Mesoamerica, the “Spanish Language and Social Justice” semester unearths the complex issues facing indigenous and peasant communities working towards sustainable development and cultural conservation today. With Spanish lessons, rural homestays, and learning service at the forefront, this semester program provides an experiential and fresh perspective on relationships with land, tradition, and community.
Click on the gallery below to browse photos, videos and quotes from our participants and instructors.
The syncretism of Catholicism and Maya spirituality, Maya cosmo-vision, cycles of time, Latin American Protestantism, community based movements.
Modernization and globalization, impact of education and tourism on indigenous culture, exploration of minority empowerment issues, sustainable agriculture, social justice issues.
Land use, grass roots organizing, sustainable agriculture, globalization, indigenous rights, social justice movements.
Homestays in several communities in Guatemala and Southern Mexico ranging from 1-4 weeks in length.
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.
4-6 weeks of one-on-one or small group interactive instruction, four to five hours a day, language immersion in home-stays.
Volunteering at the Chico Mendes reforestation project, work with sustainable agriculture, collaboration with local NGOs and community based projects.
"Chicken bus," truck, and boat travel. Hikes to remote villages.
Two multi-day treks with remote community stays in Guatemala and possibly Southern Mexico.
In order to deepen your experience abroad, you may elect to enroll in college-level courses while participating on the Guatemala Gap semester program.Those who enroll in an optional course will be invoiced an additional fee top of the land cost, for up to 16 college credits. To learn more, click here.
Students who take courses for-credit will receive an official transcript from a School of Record after successful completion of the program.
Through our Schools of Record, you may take the following courses for-college credit:
See full Course Offering descriptions.