Program Overview
Program Overview
Make your dreams of living, learning, and making a difference in the Dominican Republic a reality with CIEE Gap Year Abroad.
Try dancing the meringue during a night out with new friends, or help your host sibling prepare a traditional meal for a family celebration. Spend an afternoon exploring “Trujillo’s Monument to Peace” on a cultural excursion or lending a hand at a local orphanage during a volunteer project.
With CIEE Gap Year Abroad, you’ll learn about Dominican culture by living it. Through intensive language classes, fulfilling volunteer work, and personal exploration, you’ll become a member of the Santiago community. You’ll return to the U.S. with new friendships, valuable life skills, and the passion to thrive wherever you’re headed next.
The CIEE Difference
The CIEE Difference
Academic Program
You’ve never studied language like this before.
Four days a week you’ll take intensive language classes at the American Language Partners International (ALPI), covering grammar, vocabulary (including “Dominicanisms”), and conversation. Outside of the classroom, you’ll hone your Spanish skills with excursions to local markets and stores, cafés, and restaurants.
Additionally, you will be enrolled in a once-a-week culture class on Dominican history and culture at the CIEE Study Center located on the Pontifica Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) campus. Many of these classes bring you to the cultural and historical sites being discussed, including the Catedral de Santiago and Hermanos Patino Bridge.
Volunteer Opportunities
Give back to, and make a difference in, your host community.
Volunteering is an essential component of a gap year abroad, and a fantastic way to build fluency, and insight into Dominican society and culture. In Santiago, volunteering opportunities include working at local baseball facilities, helping out in an orphanage, building homes or parks, and assisting the elderly.
Cultural Immersion
There’s no better way to immerse yourself in another culture than by living with a local family. Not only will your host family provide you with daily meals and a place to stay, they’ll help you develop your Spanish language skills, introduce you to local customs, and offer support and guidance in an unfamiliar environment.
Our host families are as diverse as our gap year abroad students. Whomever you’re placed with, all host families are carefully screened and matched with you based on personality profiles and common interests. Through your host family, you’ll build a home away from home and develop relationships that endure long after you’ve finished your Gap Year Abroad program.
Program Excursions
Program Excursions
Explore the Dominican Republic with those who know it best. During CIEE-sponsored excursions and activities you’ll visit places of historical, religious, or cultural significance, such as the ruins and museum of La Isabela on the north coast or the museum Centro León. You’ll also take part in a week-long rural immersion, experiencing daily life outside of the Dominican Republic’s vibrant cities. Whether you decide to spend your rural stay at a cocoa plantation, an orphanage located in the mountains, or in the neighborhoods of Santo Domingo, you’ll leave with a sense of fulfillment and a real understanding of the Dominican people.
Dates, Deadlines & Fees
Dates, Deadlines & Fees
We want to make sure you get the most out of your gap year abroad experience with CIEE, which is why we offer the most inclusions in our fees.
- Transportation to and from local Dominican airport
- Language classes at ALPI
- Weekly cultural course at CIEE Study Center
- Volunteering opportunities
- CIEE-sponsored trips and excursions
- Room and board with a host family
- Supervision and support by a student services manager
- Orientations prior to leaving the U.S. and upon arrival in the Dominican Republic
- International medical insurance through iNext and 24-hour worldwide travel assistance and support services
Application Due
Start Date
End Date
Cost
Academic Year
May 25, 2013
September
April
$19,975
Fall Semester
May 25, 2013
September
December
$11,475
Spring Semester
Nov 15, 2013
January
April
$11,475
*Prices are subject to change and will be locked in for the participant on the day CIEE receives the completed application and program deposit.
Eligibility
Eligibility
- Students must be a high school graduate in good academic standing
- No previous language experience required
- Students must demonstrate, through the application and interview process, their flexibility, maturity, adaptability, and readiness to face the challenges of living in a new culture
CIEE Support
CIEE Support
The CIEE Study Center in Santiago is responsible for the supervision and support of CIEE participants throughout the duration of their stay. The Gap Year Abroad program coordinator at the Study Center will remain in regular contact throughout the semester/academic year in order to check in on your language progress and to make sure that the homestay and volunteer placements are going well. The office selects, screens, and interviews all host families and will place students with a family that best matches their student profile.
CIEE Orientation
CIEE Orientation
All CIEE Gap Year Abroad participants take part in an online orientation prior to their departure. In addition to providing logistical information, the orientation helps students set realistic expectations and goals. It also affords students and parents the opportunity to ask questions of CIEE Study Center staff.
An in-country orientation takes place upon your arrival in Santiago. The goal of the orientation is to help introduce you to your new city, country, host family, and classmates. The academic program will be reviewed, health and safety tips will be covered, and faculty and staff will offer advice on adjusting to a new language and culture. You will be met at the airport upon arrival by CIEE Santiago Study Center staff who will also assist in the final transfer to the host family.
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