International Internships with Ascend Travel
Ascend Adventure Travel offers international internships in which University Students or professionals travel abroad to work alongside Ascend Travel Staff and community members. The typical internship is between 4-6 months, and is a full-time position. International interns participate in the many different operations of the business, including working on humanitarian projects in rural communities, serving as service expedition co-leaders, helping staff our travel office in Cusco, marketing and recruitment, and much more. We are able to arrange for school credit in many cases by partnering with our intern's University. Typical duties include:
- Developing and arranging human rights workshops, environmental protection workshops and activities, computer literacy and typing,leadership training, disaster preparedness and community safety, family violence prevention, English classes and alcohol abuse prevention
- Train community workers in the Ascend Business Training program (Goal setting, record keeping, sales, cash flow, budgeting, good habits, IT, marketing, publicity, labor rights, taxes, and customer service)
- Constructing and maintaining (along with community members) projects such as community centers, libraries, schools, waterless latrines, improved stoves, greenhouses, production centers, waste management centers, water and irrigation systems, etc. Also, undertaking productive reforestation projects
- Developing and arranging portable medical clinics, health fairs at schools, health education through puppets, first aid training and community health worker training workshops
- Arranging, recruiting, and developing service expeditions
- Arranging activities, accommodations, transportation, and food for service expeditions
- Being present and helping Ascend staff with fulfillment of service expeditions
- Staffing and attending to customers in Ascend Travel's brick-and-mortar storefront near the main tourist plaza
- Responding to e-mail and telephone inquiries, and arranging local tours (a portion of the proceeds go to fund humanitarian projects)
- Helping design promotional materials and writing blogs to be included in Ascend's website
- Traveling to exotic locations and blogging about it and establishing strategic alliances (You are encouraged to take vacation time BUT you must write all about it!)
Requirements:
- Conversational Spanish, French or German (Spanish preferred)
- At least Junior status in University
- Prior international experience (Preferred)
"The complexity of working and adapting in a new culture has allowed me to grow in many directions. I have learned how to operate in the profoundly different business culture of Latin America. Ascend provided me the opportunity to be a participant in collaborative round-table meetings with social organizations and local government, make and maintain relationships with important regional institutions in addition to helping develop and deliver our programs in Peru. Being an educator and a student is a large part of the internship. Although interns do a lot of teaching, they are always learning from their beneficiaries who although poor, are culturally rich. This experience has certainly been the most valuable in all of my educational and work history."
- Geoffrey Strom, Intern in 2010
- Geoffrey Strom, Intern in 2010
