18 November 2014

Santiago, Chile

Hello,

My name is Stephanie Hairgrove and I have some exciting news and updates pertaining to information I sent in September about our volunteering/ teaching opportunity in Chile called the English Opens Doors Program’s Volunteer Initiative!

As you may be aware, Chile is currently undergoing a large-scale reform to its public education system, which is meant to strengthen and improve the quality of education for public schools here in Chile. These reforms are targeting municipal schools in particular, with the aim of providing more specific resources and support according to schools’ greatest needs. With that in mind, it is with great pleasure that we announce that the English Opens Doors Program has been granted the tremendous responsibility of carrying out the English language education component of Chile’s educational reform! In other words, the English Opens Doors Program will be the entity in charge of improving and strengthening English Language Education in approximately 1,000 schools over the next three years through diverse initiatives like our Teacher Development Programs, Students Development Programs, On-line English and Methodology courses for teachers and students, and of course, the National Volunteer Center Initiative!  We are officially starting to make strides in this mission to improve public education in Chile, and increase the level of opportunities available to students who can’t afford to pay for a privately funded education.

Due to the fact that this new challenge requires a considerable amount of restructuring and reworking of our pre-existing protocols and procedures, the Program has made changes to our volunteer services from what we had originally published. Fortunately, for the students and alumni of your university, this means that our application deadlines for our 2015 volunteer services have also been pushed back!

Please refer to the table below to see our updated 2015 volunteer services and their new application deadlines!:

On another note, we have some great news for our applicants who will be applying for their visa in the United States! We have worked out a standard agreement with the Ministry of Exterior Relations that will only require the submission of a local (state) background check for the criminal background check requirement, rather than the FBI background check (that currently has a processing time of approximately 12 weeks) when applying for a visa as a confirmed English Opens Doors Program volunteer through a Chilean consulate!

With these changes in place, we have also updated our promotional materials for your distribution and use.  Please replace any former materials you have with this updated information.  Thank you in advance for your support of our program by sharing this opportunity with your students, friends and those you feel would be interested!

The 2015 EODP Volunteer Initiative FAQ Sheet

The 2015 EODP Volunteer Initiative Brochure

The 2015 EODP Volunteer Initiative Flier

If you would like to refer to our website for more information, please check out our website:www.centrodevoluntarios.cl. 

If you have any questions, or would like to further discuss our volunteer opportunities (via e-mail, skype, or even scheduling a video conference with interested persons), please do not hesitate to contact me at Stephanie.hairgrove@mineduc.cl, or by responding to this email.

Sincerely,

Stephanie Hairgrove

The National Volunteer Center Team
ENGLISH OPENS DOORS PROGRAM
National Volunteer Center
Ministry of Education
www.centrodevoluntarios.cl 
(56/2) 2406 7193