What is Project   Chile?

Project CHILE is an innovative international internship program developed to promote an understanding of world business, global awareness, and Spanish language skills among students and in partnership with the international business community.

Students participating in the program have the opportunity to work in a Chilean firm for up to six months.  The internships are available in a variety of areas and are designed to provide students with high-level international management experience.

This year students participating in Project CHILE will participate in the intensive Spanish language program through the Universidad de Concepción in Concepción, Chile for a period of one quarter. Internships will be located and supervised by Dr. Lorena Pradeas, faculty member in the department of computer and information systems engineering at the Universidad de Concepción.

Student focused selection of internships
Internships will be sought out based upon the student's qualifications and needs.  Business internships are available in areas such as international trade, management, marketing, finance, management information systems, and operations management.

Preparation at home school and in Concepción.
Each student will develop a pre-departure preparation plan in collaboration with their school faculty mentor and the program coordinators.

Variable length internships
Companies will define the length of the internship to be four or six months based on the requirements of the internship project.  Credit hours ranging from two to six will be assigned depending on the amount of time required to meet the objectives of the host organization.

In 1998 an agreement was signed between the Universidad de Concepción and Wright State University. Based upon this agreement a decision was made to move the program to Concepción and make the program purely a Wright State University initiative. Currently only Wright State students are eligible to participate and the entire program takes place in Concepción. In order to allow students more flexibility, the program now operates on a rolling admission. During the 2000-2001 academic year, students may depart in August or March. First, they complete a business plan for their internship in conjunction with the Chilean faculty advisor while perfecting their Spanish language skills and studying courses in Chilean Culture and Business Spanish. Then the students begin working at their internships. Students work four to six months at a Chilean company. Students are required to keep a journal and send weekly progress reports to the program director at Wright State University. Upon completion of the internship students must prepare a report analyzing their internship. This report should include any non-confidential work completed on the job.

Back to Project Chile's Main Page