Interning in the Dominican Republic... What is it like?

Ioana has completed three years of her Bachelor’s degree in Spanish, French and Media and Communication at Newcastle University in Newcastle, Great Britain. She is one of three students participating in the 2012 pilot of the InteRDom Correspondent Program, and is participating in the 2012 10-week Caribbean Summer Program, with special dates beginning July 1. You can read more about Ioana and her participation in the Correspondent Program here.

…So productive, fulfilling and life-changing that I am already planning to come back in December!!!

I am almost at the end of my internship in Sto Domingo and Caribbean Summer programme with Interdom.

I have been working in the main office of Coral Hospitality Corp, a Dominican hotel management company, currently managing hotels in Cap Cana, Samaná and Juan Dolio. My job was based in the department of sales and marketing of CHC, where I have had different tasks to complete. Each task was quite different, depending on my colleagues’ positions and responsibilities. For example I had to create and translate some articles from English to Spanish and vice-versa in order to be posted in the News section of the company´s website. This task was very useful because it helped me improve my written Spanish and learn new vocabulary. It was an excellent exercise to keep up with the news in the country and constantly revise some grammatical aspects and vocabulary. Aside from this, I had the opportunity to visit two of the hotels CHC manages in Cap Cana, a very luxurious and high-standard Dominican Resort, still in development. This was possible because of a photo shoot to provide pictures for the new flyers, fact sheets and videos to promote and advertise the hotels all over the world. It was a very satisfactory experience for me due to the fact that I have been chosen to be the feminine model in the pictures and videos.

Even though I have had the same schedule everyday, starting at 9am and finishing at 4pm, it didn´t feel like a routine. At 1pm I had a lunch break for one hour, time for chatting with my colleagues, going out for a coffee or just for a walk. The food was purely Dominican and this was perfect for me, because I discovered many meals and unknown ingredients combinations. I am surely going to miss those lunches. Even if it didn´t feel like it, this 1 hour break was the best chance to get to know more the Dominican gastronomy, spirit and culture.

The most important part of the internship is that I didn’t get bored, not even for a second. This is not only because I always had something to do, but also because of the very happy, kind and cheerful people that surrounded me in the office.

Speaking excellent Spanish and being open and excited to learn the “Dominican language” helped me integrate without problems, make friends and be considered as one of their team in a very short time. After only one week of working in Coral I felt at home and having worked there for a very long time.

Coral Hospitality Corps is, for sure, one of the best organizations InteRDom collaborates with in order to create an excellent internship for YOU.