Summer 2025 Program in Puebla, Mexico, Offers Professional Placements and Spanish Immersion

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U of A Students on Puebla Program

The summer 2025 U of A faculty-led study abroad program in Puebla, Mexico, offers five popular academic options: students select from among five discrete programs that all include a Spanish for the Professions class, combined with 72 hours in a professional service-learning placement in either healthcare, business, education, engineering or community service. The 2025 dates are May 25 to June 29.

All students completing the program receive 6 hours of Spanish credit at the 3000 or 4000 level, which count towards a major or minor in Spanish (and/or Latin American and Latino Studies), or alternatively as general elective credit. Completion of SPAN 20203 or higher by the start of the program is a prerequisite.

Drop-in information sessions about the program will be held from 3:30-5 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Jan. 22-23, in Kimpel Hall 416 (a Zoom link for remote attendance is also available below). Prospective students are invited to drop in for a brief presentation and slideshow, with ample opportunity to have questions answered. Students who have already started or completed applications for the program are welcome to attend one of the sessions for further information.

Comments from recent Puebla program participants included many, such as the following: 

"This experience was an eye-opener that despite what the United States says about Mexico, Mexico is just a normal place with families and students who live their lives. Not only is it a great academic and cultural experience it's also a great way to humble yourself and appreciate other places outside your home state."

"This program makes you better at Spanish without even realizing. It is valuable for all levels of Spanish, and you even get the benefit of professional placement so that you have some job experience and know better how Spanish language and Mexican culture play a part in that."

"It's a great program with a wonderful balance of instruction time, internship experience and travel adventures. The host family living situation will also rapidly help improve your Spanish."

"I have become a lot more confident in myself and in my abilities. My attitude about the host country changed because they were so welcoming, and the people there were happier and kinder than I would have expected. It made me wish people in the U.S. were more like that."

The program in Puebla is hosted at the ultra-modern campus of the Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP) and offers students a true immersion experience. Puebla, a major metropolitan area, is centrally located in the heart of Mexico, between Mexico City and the Caribbean coast, in the shadows of the snow-capped Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl volcanos.  It is well known as one of the most beautiful cities in Mexico as well as one of the safest.

The program fee includes full room and board with Mexican host families, local tours to sites of historical and cultural significance; instructional costs and materials; and three weekend excursions with hotel to Mexico City and the pyramids at Teotihuacan, to Oaxaca City and to Cuetzalan, one of Mexico's "pueblos mágicos" with deep Spanish colonial and indigenous roots.

The link for remote participation in one of the meetings.

For further information, please contact program leader Steven Bell at sbell@uark.edu, or visit the Office of Study Abroad website, where applications can be completed at hogsabroad.uark.edu.