Barcelona Study Abroad Experience

CREATE YOUR IDEAL SHORT-TERM PROGRAM IN BARCELONA

Customized programs provide value to its student participants and institutional partners by focusing on student support, quality college-level academics, enriching customized cultural programming, and guided weekend excursions.

Barcelona SAE works with your university group leaders to design and customize programs that offer profound academic and immersion experiences.  We combine experiential learning and high-quality academics to create authentic and rewarding experiences in Barcelona.

Tailor-Made

Every program begins with an in-depth analyis of the sending university's needs and desires for their time in Barcelona. We like to first listen to what your ideal program would include then fill in the rest with our expertise and knowledge of the city.

Some universities decide to send their own faculty along to teach for-credit classes, others rely on the local Barcelona faculty do the teaching.

Customized programs can be of any length, can partner with a variety of academic institutions, and can include the activities that best fit your needs.  The options are endless when creating your customized program.

Start the process now by contacting Barcelona SAE customized programs department at info@BarcelonaSAE.com

About Barcelona SAE and Customized Programs

Barcelona Study Abroad Experience (SAE) specializes in providing superior student and faculty support services, coordinating with leading academic institutions, designing first-class excursions and developing study abroad and internship programs for international educational organizations in Barcelona.   A Barcelona SAE customized program provides your university with a tailor-made approach to provide value to its student participants and institutional partners by focusing on student support, quality college-level academics, enriching customized cultural programming, guided weekend adventures and several options to personalize the program to your needs

6 months - 18 months prior to arrival

Your university's customized program will begin months before the arrival date with extensive pre-departure analysis of how Barcelona SAE can make this the right program for you. A full, custom proposal with itinerary, housing, activities, excursions and all other details will be agreed upon in this time period

4-8 months prior to arrival

Barcelona SAE will help you create marketing materials to recruit students for your program. This includes posters, on-line marketing, handouts, powerpoint presentations and possibly even a school visit by a Barcelona SAE staff to recruit in person.

2-3 months prior to arrival

You and your students will receive the pre-departure materials detailing everything from packing lists, to cultural awareness to a short history of Barcelona and Spain.  We have found that this not only helps prepare students physically and emotionally but it also cuts down on the repeat questions that students have for the faculty leading the program.

3 weeks prior to arrival

The final mailing goes out to all participants with a reminder of the program itinerary, the things they can do to prepare, and any other last-minute information.

Arrival day!

You will be met at the airport by a smiling representative of Barcelona SAE who will welome you to Barcelona and transfer you to the accommodation.  Without wasting any time, we will hold some mini-orientation sessions to reinforce immediate health and safety issues, then that night we will enjoy our first of many delicious catalan meals at the Welcome Dinner.

The rest of the program

The rest of the program is up to you.  Do you want to include:

• Your own university's classes
• Cultural modules taught by local faculty
• Excursions out of town
• Activities in Barcelona such as a Catalan Cooking (and eating!) class
• Guided tours of Barcelona
• Visits to local Businesses
• Hand-on experiential activties

Start to tailor your own customized program by contactin Barcelona SAE Customized Programs Department.

• Depending on the length of the internship and the time of year, interns could be offered subsidized excursions to exciting places outside of Barcelona.  Some of the excursions are day-trips and some are overnight, weekend excursions to further away destinations.
  
  Please check out our excursions page for more information on the possibilities.
  
  Interns also have their weekends free to travel to the places that they want and the Barcelona SAE staff is very happy to help give independent travel advice including where to go, how to save on costs, low-cost travel options, local festivals and more.

Costs:

Since each customized program is personalized to the organization, a final proposal will be worked out with you after personal consultation with the faculty leading the program.

This Base Package is included in every customized program:

1. Safety and Cross-Cultural Orientation Workshops
 
•    Health and safety
•    Culture shock discussion
•    Cultural awareness activities
•    Spanish and Catalan culture discussion
•    Discussion of U.S. culture and values
•    Survival Spanish language
•    Expert tips of how to learn a foreign language
•    How to maximize your experience abroad
•    Transportation use
•    Daily living
•    Cultural Iceberg
•    Role plays
•    Geography of Barcelona
•    Brief history of Spain
•    Printed materials

2.  Round-trip airfare  

Included in the package for your school is round-trip airfare to Barcelona from the closest hub to your university.

3.  Airport welcome and transfer to housing
A member of the Barcelona SAE staff will be waiting for you and your group at the airport with your university’s name on a banner to welcome you to Barcelona.

4.    Welcome dinner
Start the program off by satisfying your hunger for delicious Catalan food at a local restaurant. This also helps your students feel comfortable learning food vocabulary and trying new delicacies.

5.    Administration and coordination
Barcelona SAE will take care of all of the logistics, from coordination with housing to classroom space to cultural activities.

6.    Additional staff support
You may choose to have several faculty members take part in the program or not.  Either way, the Barcelona SAE staff will be here to support whoever you send in whatever ways we can.

7.    24-hour emergency phone
Rest assured (and reassure your students and parents) that Barcelona SAE staff will be available for emergencies 24-hours a day.

8.    Re-entry workshop (for longer programs)
All of the students will take part in the re-entry workshop which covers topics such as using this Study Abroad Experience on your resume, to reverse culture shock to how to keep this experience alive when you return home.

9.    Marketing assistance to help attract students to the program (photos, copy etc…)
We will help you recruit your students to the program by including one, or many, of the  following: marketing copy for your website, posters to hang on campus, powerpoint presentations for classes, on-line social networking, or even a visit by a Barcelona SAE representative.

Additional Options to enhance the program include:

• Several cultural activities in the city
• Different accommodation options
• Cultural Academic Modules taught by local faculty on topics that range from The Culture of Food and Wine in Spain to Great 20th Century Artists of Catalonia
• Several different staff-led weekend excursion options outside of Barcelona
• Visits to local businesses and places of special interest to you
• Guest speakers in almost any field

There are several housing options to choose from so during the in-depth needs analysis that Barcelona SAE performs with each group prior to solidifying the program, we will explain these options in detail.

Customized programs have several different housing options depending on the length of stay.

     1. There are beautiful apartment options where students share a bedroom within a larger apartment containing  a kitchen,          bathroom, and living area.  Depending on the size of the group, all students can fit into several apartments in the same building. The faculty could also have separate apartments in the same building
     2. Many groups, especially for shorter duration programs, prefer to stay in nice, centrally-located hotels in Barcelona.  This option includes breakfast every morning and shared doubles or triples for the students.
     3. For a program that lasts at least a month, homestays are an option. A homestay means that one or two students will live with a local “family” which could be a young husband and wife, an older, or younger, woman living on her own or a family with kids and a pet – there is no typical family here which adds to the excitement. Breakfast is included in the homestays.
     4. If the time of year is right, a customized group may decide they want to stay in a university residence hall where local students stay.