Dates: June 8 – June 21, 2025
Cost: Approximately $4,000 (exclusive of airfare) 
Course Credit: 1 World Languages Credit    
Certificate Pursuit: Global Citizenship & Awareness

Destino Salamanca is a two-week intensive language program that offers Pomfret students a total immersion experience with four hours of daily language instruction, home stays with Spanish families, daily cultural activities, and weekend trips to Segovia and Madrid. We will guide a minimum of six and a maximum of fourteen students to maintain intimacy and ensure that each student is able to truly appreciate the Spanish culture, history, art, cuisine, and language. 

Who Can Apply? 
This program is open to students who have successfully completed Spanish II.

Trip Leaders 
Dr. Pablo Montoro Alonso | World Languages Department Head at Pomfret School 
Born and raised in Salamanca, Spain, Pablo began learning languages at a young age and was fortunate to spend multiple summers studying languages in England, Ireland, Canada, and Austria. He attended Universidad de Salamanca for his undergraduate studies in History and his Masters in teaching Spanish as a foreign language. After two years teaching Spanish in Salamanca, he came to the US to experience life on this side of the ocean. He found a new home at Pomfret School, where he has been living and working since 2007. During his time at Pomfret, he has led four trips with students to Spain, one to Costa Rica, and one to Chile. In 2019, he completed his PhD Cum
Laude in Advanced Research in Spanish Language and Literature at the Universidad de Salamanca. 

Charity McClure | Director of Health Services at Pomfret School 
Though a family nurse practitioner by trade, travel has always been one of Charity’s passions. As an undergraduate student, she spent a semester in Granada, Spain, which she describes as one of the most formative experiences of her life. Her time in Spain sparked a lifelong curiosity in the Spanish language and Hispanic culture. She has traveled extensively through South and Central America, including medical mission trips to El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Haiti. “Studying abroad in Spain gave me the confidence and language skills to be a lifelong learner and adventurer,” she says. “Whether hiking the Inca Trail en route to Machu Picchu; scuba diving in El Jardin de la Reina, Cuba; scaling the temples of Tikal in Guatemala; camping in the salt flats of Bolivia; or taking classes as an adult in Salamanca, each one of these trips happened because of my first experience abroad in Spain.” 

What Students Can Expect 
We will meet students at the Madrid-Barajas airport (MAD). On our way from Madrid to Salamanca, we will stop for a snack in Ávila, one of the fifteen Spanish cities recognized as a World Heritage site by UNESCO. Afterwards, we will continue on to Salamanca where students will meet their host families for lunch and their first siesta. We will meet them later that evening for a short walking tour of Salamanca and dinner.” Classes will begin the following day. 

Classes will be held Monday through Friday, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Students will go home to share lunch with their host families at the Spanish customary lunchtime of 2:30 p.m. After enjoying a cultural classic “siesta,” students will meet up again for afternoon activities at 5:00 p.m. 

There is so much to explore in Salamanca! Activities include visits to museums, cathedrals, Roman architectural and archaeological sites, flamenco lessons, a cooking class…every day will be a new adventure! 

At 7:00 p.m. we will meet as a group to debrief on the day and allow students some supervised free time for shopping or enjoying a snack in one of Salamanca’s lovely plazas. Everyone will return home each evening for dinner with their host family, traditionally around 9:00 p.m. 

On the first full weekend, we will be taking two day trips to explore several of the small towns in the mountains outside of Salamanca and Segovia, another UNESCO World Heritage City. After the last class, we will return to Madrid and spend our last afternoon together touring Spain’s capital city. On Saturday, we will shuttle students to the airport in time for their flights and no later than 11:00 a.m.