International Internships: Preparing for the Challenge

Given the current climate of terrorism directed not only at Americans but at citizens of any country in the world by religious extremists, drug gangs, and even pirates, a concern for the safety of students interning abroad is a major consideration for most universities. By preparing the student for the challenge, the student’s safety, while not guaranteed, can be enhanced, and the student will be able to handle most situations involving emergencies of any type. This article deals with a twenty-three-year-old program with a good track record of internships abroad. Since 1984, St. Mary’s University, a Marianist institution, has had a program that requires an internship abroad, with either a United States or international establishment, in a country that speaks the language being studied. The program is the Multinational Organization Studies (MOS) program in French, Portuguese, or Spanish. Initially German was one of the offerings, but it was later eliminated because of a lack of students. Since its inception, close to 200 students have majored in the program and have participated its internships. Students have interned in Mexico, Canada, France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Belize, the Ivory Coast, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Chile, and Brazil. The internships have been served in a myriad of assignments ranging from the Supreme Court of Costa Rica to the Ministries of Agriculture of Chile and Honduras, the French Red Cross, the International Red Cross in Switzerland, the Ministries of Economics in Costa Rica, Germany, and Honduras, UNICEF-Spain headquarters, and the United States Embassy in Belize. Others have been in law offi ces in Mexico, Spain, Belgium, Costa Rica, and in entities such as banks in Chile and Honduras, hotels in France, Mexico, Germany, Puerto Rico, and Spain. They have also been served in several industries, such as wine exporters in Chile, a bread factory in Mexico, a transport company in France, a major German petrochemical company in Mexico and the Ivory Coast and several others in minor industries throughout the countries already mentioned. The MOS Degree was conceived specifi cally to provide an alternative to careers in teaching for language majors. It consists of a thirty (30) semesterGlobal Business Languages (2007) Rubén Araiza Candia St. Mary’s University (San Antonio) INTERNATIONAL INTERNSHIPS: PREPARING FOR THE CHALLENGE