IPSL Ecuador: Animal Rights & Corp Social Responsibility

IPSL has designed & delivered international programs focusing on experiential learning, ethical service & engaged research for 37 years. Now the independent IPSL Institute for Global Learning is authorized to offer academic credit, issue official transcripts and confer diplomas through the Master's level. IPSL is a B-Corp (Social Benefit Organization) with over 83% of profits directly returned to the people, communities & NGOs they partner with abroad.

Ecuador spans the equator on the NW coast of South America. With its cultural diversity and wide range of environments-the Galapagos Islands, the coastal areas of the Pacific, the Andes mountain range and the headwaters of the Amazon-it provides an ideal location for students to live in and learn about South America, encountering directly its issues and concerns. In Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, you will enjoy a tropical climate with varied and abundant flora and fauna and a newly revitalized waterfront. You will also encounter dramatic contrasts of wealth and poverty, and the social issues generated through that disparity.

Spend a semester developing your Spanish skills; studying Ecuadorian history, culture, and society; living with an Ecuadorian family; and serving 15–20 hours a week in an Ecuadorian community agency. Your volunteer service immerses you in the culture and deepens your understanding of Ecuadorian society in a way that goes beyond that experienced in traditional study abroad programs.

Students live with an Ecuadorian family, who provide most of your meals. Homestays offer the opportunity to make life-long friends, reinforce language skills and experience culture from "the inside." Host families are carefully selected and experienced with hosting students. During the Service-Learning Plus extension, students live at a rustic eco-tourist lodge in a coastal village.

Opportunities for substantive service are generally available in the following areas: Teaching English; Health-Care & Education; Animal Welfare; Tutoring & recreation for children and teens; Community & Economic Development; Ecological Preservation; Eco-Tourism & Sustainable Microbusiness; Marine Biodiversity.

English, Spanish