Let's talk Latin America

From Bristol to Bogotá with Red Tree Study

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Christine Gregory, programs manager at Red Tree Study, details the opportunities for students in Colombia and the company’s strong ties to Bristol.

Bristol was the start of it all for Red Tree Study. Both founders, Alex Jones and Charlotte Bonsey, are Bristol graduates whose passion for Latin America brought them together and spawned a business endeavor to link foreign students to academic and internship opportunities in Colombia- a place both of them immediately fell in love with upon visiting for the first time in 2008. In 2012, Red Tree Study was born and since then has hosted a multitude of Bristol students exploring their budding passions in film, international relations, and Spanish language in the best possible setting for an immersive cultural experience: Bogotá.

Given Red Tree Study’s strong ties to Bristol, the company is particularly interested in promoting the participation of Bristol students in their film internships and summer academic programs. If you’re interested in exploring Colombia, this could be the perfect immersion into its incredibly warm, colorful culture while advancing your professional or academic passions. Read the following descriptions for more information on the program best related to your specific interest.

 

Film Internships    

 

Interested in getting hands on experience at a top Colombian film company? You’re in luck because it’s an exciting time for the Colombian film industry given its current rapid growth and increased international attention and investment. Backed by government initiatives, it continues to attract productions from big names such as FOX, National Geographic, and Netflix. Our Internship program offers applicants the chance to be a part of it.

You can read a list of available jobs here on our website. A film degree is not necessary, but applicants should be ambitious, enthusiastic and keen to develop skills through hands-on work experience. Interns can expect to be working on high-profile projects: for example, they could be placed with Dynamo (who produce Narcos), Screen Colombia (The Discovery Channel’s Naked and Afraid), 64A Films (the hugely successful telenovela El Patrón del Mal), or work at Ciudad Lunar with Oscar-winning Director Ciro Guerra. Participants have a dedicated workplace mentor, who will provide the relevant professional training and weekly written reviews.

The internships are arranged as a package that includes accommodation, an airport pickup, networking events, and a busy social calendar designed to help participants explore Colombia and its culture. The program will launch with an event at Proimagenes, the Colombian Film Commission, and students will also be able to attend a series of prestigious lectures at Bogota Audiovisual Marketan internationally renowned event that promotes the industry in Colombia.

 

The famous graffiti tour in Bogotá’s historic centre, La Candelaria.

 

 

Peacebuilding Summer Academic Program

 

Armed Conflict, Peace Processes and the challenges of Peacebuilding in Colombia will be delivered by the Political Science department at Universidad de Los Andes (Uniandes) in Bogota starting June 11, 2018. The 3-week program is run by Angelika Rettberg, Director of the Masters in Peacebuilding at Uniandes, and will explore the recent history of the Colombian conflict and the challenges of implementing the recent peace agreement.

Now entering its third year, the course combines lectures and seminars taught by academics from Los Andes University with educational site visits that deliver practical knowledge of the political and social situation in Colombia. This summer, students met with President Santos’ communications team to discuss the influence of public opinion on the peace negotiations and visited the UN Development Project, the Center for Transitional Justice, the Colombian Congress and the Reparation of Victims Unit, and took part in a guided tour of the city’s political graffiti for example. The highlight of the 2017 program was a group trip to the demobilization zone in Icononzo where students spent the day with former FARC combatants and the UN representatives managing the camp.

The program is open to students from a range of arts, humanities and social science subjects, and is aimed particularly at those with an interest in conflict resolution, politics, history, and international relations in Latin America. It includes supervised accommodation in Los Andes brand new student residence, an airport pickup on arrival, and a calendar of social and cultural activities for evenings and weekends, designed to help students explore Colombia as much as possible whilst they are there.

 

Group weekend trip to Salento for coffee tasting in the Eje Cafetero

 

Public Health Summer Academic Program  

 

This four-week summer program will be offered for the first time by the prestigious Institute of Public Health at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (PUJ) in Bogota, Colombia starting on June 12th, 2018. Students will have the unique opportunity to study Colombia’s population health status within the context of the recent Peace Accords.

Through a series of lectures, seminars by guest speakers, and site visits to medical, governmental, and educational organizations, students will explore public health in Colombia. Taught with an interdisciplinary approach, students will engage with academics from a range of faculties including Medicine, Politics, Economics and Public Health. The in-class lectures led by professors with extensive expertise in their field will guide students through case studies taken from current research projects led by PUJ Institute of Public Health faculty.

The course will explore the state of public health in the context of the recent conflict and in relation to the diverse social and economic factors across Colombia’s varied geography that impact health. Topics will include the national health profile and disease burden, the epidemiology of disease in Colombia, the evolution of the public healthcare system, and the mental health status of Colombian civilians and formally active combatants post-trauma. The site visits to cultural, governmental and educational organizations are likely to include the National Center of Historical Memory, the Ministry of Health, the Military Center for Rehabilitation, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and public and private hospitals. The four-week program will consist of 120 contact hours in total, supplemented by the additional activities in the social program.

 

UCL Medical student, Pranay Balijepalli, at Bogotá’s Center of Memory, Peace, and Reconciliation (Centro de Memoria, Paz y Reconciliación) with Orly, a tour guide from a local homeless shelter

 

Spanish Language Courses

 

Red Tree Study partners with the top Spanish language schools and universities in Colombia and are ready to help advise on the optimal placement for you. Whatever your preferred location may be (Cartagena, Medellin, or Bogota?) and whatever type of academic environment you seek (university or language school?), we’re happy to lay out all the possibilities for your immersive language experience. When you book a Spanish course with Red Tree Study, we don’t charge any extra booking fees and guarantee that you’ll pay the same or even less than booking with the school directly. We can also help advise on your visa travel arrangements, free of charge.

In summary, Red Tree Study’s range of academic and internship opportunities in Colombia offer Latin America lovers a chance to further explore their field of study in a place filled to the brim with salsa music, delicious Colombian dishes, and the underlying “calor humano” (human warmth) that sets Colombia apart as a place you are sure to fall in love with. If you’re looking to trade Bristol for Bogotá, contact info@redtreestudy.com with any and all questions related to the programs and their participation costs.