Thomaz Alvares de Azevedo, Brazil

As a native speaker of Portuguese, I acknowledge that Spanish may bear some similarities to my native language. However, the fact remains that I arrived at INEPAS without having ever had a single class in Spanish, and after two months of accelerated study I achieved working proficiency. In addition to its academic excellence, at INEPAS I also greatly profited from the opportunity to engage myself in the institution’s language and social aid programs’ administration.

Regarding the language school, I was exposed to how INEPAS works to select only well-certified Spanish professors and how after more than a decade in business it has developed trusting relations with the local families that provide home-stay to international students. My personal experience was particularly positive; I had as teachers two law students in their final years of education and a mid-career journalist, all of them certified Spanish teachers. The family with whom I stayed not only lived close to the INEPAS office, but also made me a part of their life, including cousin’s birthdays, out-of-town short-trips, school music presentations and group readings with friends.

Based on my experience of the social aid program, both in the Quetzaltenango office and in the highland’s communities, I could assess the comprehensiveness of INEPAS’ grassroots activities. INEPAS provides both pro bono social and legal guidance to low-income households, and material and technical support to fifteen Computer Labs spread across nearby villages. It also successfully runs four community daycare centers in rural communities in the highlands, and it fundraises and manages a scholarship aid program that keeps poor students—who otherwise would need to drop their education in order to work—in high-school and college.

Finally, through INEPAS’ direction and Quetzaltenango staff I was able to network with local personalities who provided me with valuable insights into Guatemala’s political life. While in Quetzaltenango, under the orientation of one of INEPAS’ professors and professional journalists, I was able to publish an article in one of the city’s main political magazines. Back in the US I had enough material to not only publish a press release about Guatemala’s 2007 presidential race, but also to handle the challenge of being an invited analyst discussing Guatemala’s first-round election on Voice of America’s morning news, in Spanish of course.

Thus, based on the quality of the language program, the importance of the social aid programs and the helpfulness of the director and staff, I am more than pleased to recommend INEPAS as a place to both study Spanish and volunteer in Guatemala.