General Internship Information
Internships are offered year round with a minimum length of six weeks and a typical length of three months (longer internships available). Interns will focus on time-sensitive goal-oriented projects for an average of thirty hours per week.
See “Compensation” below for compensation for all internships. See “Grants” below for grant eligible internships. Interns are expected to practice their Spanish in conjunction with their internship work.
Internship Eligibility
All internship applicants must:
- be recently graduated or currently enrolled in a college/university undergrad/grad program, or a post-high school technical program, related to the area of internship requested.
- have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.
- have prior experience and/or related coursework in internship requested.
- possess strong interpersonal skills.
- have knowledge of the Spanish language and a desire to improve their language skills.
Internship Grading and Course Credit (if applicable)
- Interns will document their internship daily into their Course Journal including text and photos (at a minimum). Power Point slide shows (electronic journal) recommended.
- Interns will meet with their advisor/manager weekly to discuss and assess goals.
- Interns will be evaluated by their advisor/manager on a monthly basis. This will be included in their course journal.
- Hotel management will work with the intern’s University adviser if course credit to the intern’s University is accepted. Acceptance of credit by the interns University must be coordinated by the intern. We will help but we cannot do this for you.
Compensation (all internships)
- Private hotel room with private bath (add $20 a day for live-in non-intern spouse).
- Three meals a day (Organic Tico fusion).
- Access to:
- Free wireless hot spot (bring your own computer).
- Free use of: tennis, swimming pool/jacuzzi, skate board park, mountain biking, windsurfing, optimist sailing (kite boarding not included).
- Discounted access to: kite boarding, wake boarding, jet skiing, and boating.
- Half price for all alcoholic beverages.
- Family and friends rate for your visiting family and friends during your internship.
- Discounted one-week per year Hotel stay for five years after the completion date of your internship. We want our interns to come back and visit and see the continued progress of their projects over the years!
Grants (grant eligible internships only)
Cash compensation is available in the form of a grant for internships indicated with a dollar sign ($). Please include your grant proposal with your internship application if you are interested in receiving a grant. You may provide a preliminary budget and we will help you with the fine tuning.
Detailed Description of Internship Opportunities
Marketing
Hotel Tilawa, like any destination resort, depends upon successful marketing. Our clients are primarily North American, and reaching them is key to our business’ success. The marketing internship has many possibilities, some of which are listed below including; Advertising, Public Relations, Events Promotions, and Direct Marketing. If you are student who is interested in waging a marketing campaign on behalf of the Hotel & Water Sports Center we are ready for your ideas. This is a great learning experience with hands-on training. We offer the following internships:
- Web based “get-the-word-out campaigns”: blogs, 3rd party web sites, chats, etc.
- Existing website redesign and new website development.
- Print media “special interest campaigns”: magazines, news papers, etc.
- Regional print media campaigns with a focus on US cities with direct flights to CR.
- Volcano/Hot Springs Boat Tour advertising campaign (This is a combo marketing & hands-on tour guide project - see Water Sports Center description for more details).
Organic Garden & Farming
We have three existing organic gardens on our 40 acre farm totaling 1.5 acres of garden. Our goal is to; continue to protect the existing genetic bio-diversity of Costa Rican fruits and vegetables, document and cultivate medicinal plants, and expand our existing organic gardens to supply our restaurant and to sell locally. We are also interested in ornamental plants, repopulating of indigenous species (flora and fauna), and raising hormone-free, antibiotic-free fowl and pigs for our restaurant. We offer the following internships:
- Work hands-on under our Organic Garden Department Head in the cultivation and expansion of our three organic gardens.
- Investigate and document local knowledge of medicinal plants (Spanish fluency required) and cultivate a sustainable medicinal plant garden.
- Document existing botanical and biological species on our farm and cultivate and repopulate indigenous species (special interest in raising Peccaries).
- ($) Research and procure additional food crops that are well suited to this climate (Potatoes and corn are of special interest).
- ($) Cultivate organic, free-range fowl and pigs.
- ($) Propagate existing and new ornamental plants, trees, and special interest exotic foods.
- ($) Propose a self-designed project.
Resort Operations & Front Desk Management
Hotel Tilawa is a 21 room full service hotel & Water Sports Center with many amenities and services offered to clients on-site (tour reservations and responding to general info inquiries). Off-site client services include; responding to emails, phone calls and faxes for future reservations. Our clients are primarily North Americans visiting the Hotel for sport (windsurfing, kite boarding, and SK8) and family tour excursions (canopy tour, river raft float, ATV tour, waterfall horse back tour, and bird watching). We have many repeat clients and more recently our guests are individuals looking at real-estate (investment and retirement). We offer the following internships:
- Operations (customer service, etc.) and front desk management - morning hours
- Operations (customer service, etc.) and front desk management – afternoon hours
Note: Both time slots require a lot of client contact and some e-mail and phone answering. Basic knowledge (minimum) of Spanish is necessary.
Food & Beverage Services
La Vista Restaurant is an independent business located in the Hotel. The Restaurant serves good healthy food and has been a training venue for many local motivated Ticos (Costa Ricans) over the past 16 years. Our almost exclusive (soon to be exclusive) use of organic herbs and vegetables (from our garden) used in conjunction with the finest local ingredients available (minimally processed) makes our restaurant unique in this area. La Vista Restaurant is open 365 days per year from 6:00 am until 10:00 pm. We ALWAYS have room for anyone who wants to practice Spanish while implementing their cooking or administrative skills. We offer the following internships:
- Motivated food connoisseurs that can cook, speak a little Spanish, are people oriented individuals, and who want to have fun and be part of our restaurant team.
- ($) Have a cooking degree? Want to run a restaurant and produce your own signature specials with what is coming out of our organic garden?
- Partnership opportunities available. Ask Jean Paul.
Sustainable Housing Development
We (hotlink the word “we” to 1-page bios of JP and me) are currently developing a small (20 home) sustainable housing community on our 40 acre farm adjacent to our Hotel. We are dedicated to the application of environmentally sensitive building products and techniques. Our goal is to provide a quality of life better than that currently enjoyed by first world, educated, homeowners by providing aesthetically pleasing, low-environmental impacting, energy efficient, low maintenance, sustainable designs. Internship programs are limited exclusively to students of engineering and design, with special interest in sustainability, green architecture, and innovative engineering:
- ($) Designers and Architects to assist in designing. Come on Berkeley grads, we have (lifetime) Wurster alumni on staff!
- ($) Electrical engineers for designing the perfect 12v and 110/220 house illumination and appliance home distribution and use system (We have one at the Hotel, but it’s not perfect).
- Parameters: Provide expected convenience and reliability to users while bringing the consumption down.
- Examples: Sun frost refrigerators, Splendide model 2100 washer/dryer combo, 12 volt LCD and incandescent lighting only, CFL, (OK a few reading lamps of 110, 75W bulbs on timers) active solar and gel battery’s. Partial on- and partial off-grid electrical source.
- ($) Green roofs? Home built active solar array? Innovative gray water use?
- Partnership opportunities available. Ask Jean Paul.
Water Sports Center
The Water Sports Center is an independent business located walking distance from the Hotel. We currently have an on-site partner, Juan Carlos, operating the Water Sports Center. Juan Carlos is a twenty six year old, licensed open-ocean Costa Rican Boat Captain and windsurf instructor who is responsible for all staffing, accounting, inventory, and equipment maintenance. He hires and manages all personnel at the Water Sports Center including; equipment riggers, jet-ski drivers (for lesson support), and guards. We offer the following internships:
- Hang out and help Juan Carlos service clients at the lake 5 days a week. Yes, this is an internship!!
- ($) Double Vision Lake and Volcano Hot Springs Boat Tour Director (see below).
Kite Boarding Instructing
Kite Boarding instructing is contracted on a seasonal basis (December 15-March 15) with North American licensed kiteboarding instructors. Instructors may bring their own gear and/or rent all of the necessary gear from the Water Sports Center. The following opportunity is available:
- Licensed kite boarding instructor to teach lessons (yes, the Client pays you directly).
Double Vision Lake & Volcano Hot Springs Boat Tour Operator
The Double Vision is our power operated 36 foot Catamaran. We are looking for a marketing oriented, watercraft enthusiast experienced with operating boats, with great sales skills and a desire to organize this tour package, market it, and operate it.
The tour consists of a day trip from Pacific Ocean beaches (i.e., Tamarindo) to Lake Arenal and Arenal Volcano hot springs, and includes the following:
- R/T Transportation: Bus or taxi (private licensed and insured 3rd party service).
- Lunch and Dinner: Hotel Tilawa La Vista Restaurant and Fortuna area restaurant.
- DV Boat Tour: 36 foot power Catamaran R/T lake tour and transfer.
- Tabacon or other Hot Springs entrance fee.
Duration: Five hours R/T road travel, one and a half hour R/T boat tour, three hours relaxing at Tabacon Hot Springs.
Existing Competition: Swiss Travel of CR currently offers a Volcano Arenal tour via a 40-passenger bus for $100 per person. They don’t use a boat because they don’t have one. Therefore, they drive the entire distance around the lake totaling a R/T bus ride of nine hours from Tamarindo Beach.
We offer the following internship:
- ($) Boat Tour Organizer and Operator.
- Partnership opportunities available. Ask Jean Paul.
Muralist
We have many beautiful ochre murals throughout the Hotel and we would like to add more. Ochre pigmented cementitious plasters are the only durable medium to use for longevity and beauty, for example: 22,000 year old cave paintings in France and the 4,000 year old frescos of the Palace of Knossos. Come and work this exiting and permanent medium and create your own murals for history. Check out hotel-tilawa.com to see some examples of our existing murals.
We offer the following internships:
- ($) Mural painting using ochres, throughout the Hotel.
Interior Designer
We are in the process of redecorating our rooms and need a talented interior designer. See hotel-tilawa.com for views of our existing rooms. We are looking for someone who can re-design the interior of our Guest Rooms including; furniture selection and placement, window coverings, fabrics, lighting, bathroom redesigns, etc., and who can implement their designs including working with local seamstresses, and suppliers, etc. Adequate knowledge of Spanish required.
We offer the following internship:
- Interior design of Guest Rooms and Hotel Lobby (we have 21 rooms and are looking for several different designs).
Development of Educational Programs
We have existing educational programs and more that we would like to develop. Each year we have 15 US high school AP science students visit our Hotel to study alternative energy; wind, hydro, and thermal. They also visit the Oso Peninsula to perform bio-diversity studies in the rainforest that they are supporting (via fundraisers in at their US high school).
We offer the following internships:
- Development of a University level alternative energy educational tour.
- Further development of the existing high school educational tour including: studying and maintaining fresh water sources, indigenous flora and fauna replenishment, etc.
- Propose a self-designed project.
Design Your Own Internship
Send along anything you think might work for us mutually. There is a world of possibilities!
If you are interested in Hotel Tilawa's Internships program, tell us about your self - send an email to "internships @ hotel-tilawa.com"
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