Research, Internship and Volunteer Opportunities
Internship Opportunities
CASA offers you the opportunity to participate in research, internships, and/or service-learning activities during your time in Havana. While traditional internships in Cuba are less common than in the United States, and cannot be undertaken for pay, we usally offer three standard options each semester (detailed below). Based on student requests and interests, we may also be able to arrange additional options, such as working with CENESEX (National Center for Sex Education), or in Casa de las Américas' archive.
The three standard internship options CASA Cuba offers include:
✓ English as a Second Language Teaching Assistant
Students participate teaching English alongside a distinguished Instructor of English for Cuban high school and university students seeking to enhance their language skills. The level of English course taught varies each semester, depending on Cuban participants, but is generally at the beginner or intermediate level. Classes meet in the afternoon, twice a week, for 90 minutes, throughout the semester. Upon successful completion, students receive a certificate demonstrating teaching ESL class in a foreign, intercultural environment. Key goals of the course include improving oral expression and listening comprehension; CASA students play a fundamental role in assisting with pronounciation and speaking. CASA students offer Cuban students the valuable opportunity to practice English with native speakers.
Lic. Giselle Morales Sosa, English teacher
e-mail: gmoralesosa65@gmail.com
CASA Cuba students participating as English language teaching assistants
✓ Academic Journal Temas
Work with founding editor and CASA Professor Rafael Hernández in the editing and promotion of Cuba’s foremost social science journal. Students have worked on literature reviews, translation, editing, and their own article contributions. The journal also hosts monthly public debates on contemporary and controversial issues which students help facilitate. Check out the Temas here.
Contact: Rafael Hernández, rafaelmhdez@yahoo.com
✓ Casa de las Américas: Afro Americas
The Afro-American Studies Program was created in 2015 by researcher Zuleica Romay and aims to deepen studies of Africa's legacy in the continent's culture. Objectives of the Program include: promoting the exchange of knowledge, and creating knowledge, about the African footprint on American arts and cultures, the consequences of transatlantic trafficking and enslavement, and he contributions of African descendants to the national communities of the Americas. Students may assit with organizing colloquiums, workshops, and publications on these topics.
Please contact Emily (emily@lahabana.casa.education) to be put in touch with Zuleica.
✓ Research Trips
CASA Cuba also provides students with the opportunity to develop and carry out a small research project that takes place outside of Havana during a prolonged weekend halfway through the semester. This may be related to one or more of the classes that students take at CASA or UH. They will present a short research plan and budget, and will be reimbursed for travel expenditures following CASA guidelines and after making a short presentation. These trips foster independent research and propell students to leave Havana on non-program organized trips!
➢Student testimony about research trips
Samantha Rosario Brown University, Spring 2025
