Community Service Component

One of the strengths of the program is the Community Service component. All Valparaíso Intermediate students will participate in a community service workshop and will have the opportunity to participate in a community service project for the duration of the semester. IFSA-Butler students can work side by side with their Chilean peers in these community-based programs. Students participating in the Community Service component will receive additional credit for the Spanish class. Moreover, students can build their resumes with concrete examples of skills that are prized in today’s global work environments: teamwork, project management, and effective communication across languages and cultures.

Courses

Students will be required to preregister for a maximum of five of the following classes. While every effort will be made to place students in their top four choices, a minimum of five preregistered students is required for a course to be offered. Each course will consist of a total of 45 direct contact hours. A glossary of key terms for each course will be provided along with course packs containing selected required readings from a more extensive bibliography. Complete syllabi are available upon request.

• Intensive Spanish Course (3–4 U.S. semester credit hours)
• Contemporary Chilean Writers (3 U.S. semester credit hours)
• Chile: Cultural Anthropology of a Nation (3 U.S. semester credit hours)
• How to do Business in Chile and Latin America (3 U.S. semester credit hours)
• Mysteries and Traditions of the Rapa Nui Culture (3 U.S. semester credit hours)
• Environmental Challenges in Today's Chile (3 U.S. semester credit hours)
• Geohistory and Natural Resources (3 U.S. semester credit hours)
• Recent History of Chile: Politics, Human Rights and Cultural Evolution (3 U.S. semester credit hours)

Workshops

This program is not integrated with the regular Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (USM) curriculum, so IFSA-Butler and USM have developed a series of activities for students in order to help foster cultural and language learning.

Community Service Workshop

All students will participate in a community service workshop that will provide an overview of the different volunteer opportunities available to our students.

Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María Workshops

Additionally, students will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of workshops together with local students. These workshops may include social dance, folklore, photography, yoga, stress management, acting and musical creation.

For detailed course syllabi, contact Program Advisor Ashley Anderson.