The Oaxaca Project

The Oaxaca Project 2025

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DATES: June 6 - July 1, 2025

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The Oaxaca Project

Led by a team of award-winning journalists and professors with international experience, students will explore the history and indigenous culture of Mexico. Students will start in Mexico City and explore some of the archaeological sites of that city. They then will travel to Oaxaca, a region that is home to 16 different indigenous cultures that is rich with art and artesanía, one of the food capitals of Mexico, and also home to archaeological sites. Students will create multimedia stories in English or Spanish about the culture and traditions of Mexico.

Mexico City

Students will spend three nights in Mexico City and visit the National Museum of Anthropology that showcases Mexico’s most important indigenous groups. Students also will see The Sun Stone or Aztec Calendar, the Jade mask of the Zapotec Bat God in Oaxaca exhibit room and Caotlicue, the mother-earth goddess. Students will explore the centro of the capital as well as take a day trip to the archaeological site of Teotihuacan, home of the Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon.

The City of Oaxaca

Students will spend three weeks in Oaxaca City, a beautiful southern city with cobblestone streets, colonial-era churches, and food and crafts markets. It is an UNESCO World Heritage Site and the Oaxaca Valley has been inhabited by indigenous communities since 11,000 B.C.. The city is surrounded by villages dedicated to art, including black pottery, woven rugs and the famous alebrijes. These hand painted wood carvings of fantastic creatures inspired the movie “Coco” and we will visit the art studio where they make the colorful alebrijes. The city is dotted with cultural murals and colonial churches. Oaxaca is considered a gastronomic capital and is famous for its mole sauce with seven different moles featured in different restaurants. You also can try mole, tamales and the famous Mexican hot chocolate in the local markets. Oaxaca also is the capital of mezcal, a liquor made from the heart of the agave plant. Nearby are the archaeological ruins of Monte Albán.

During this program, you will learn how to:

• research and report a story in a foreign setting
• interview sources with the help of an interpreter
• produce text, photos and/or multimedia content for publication under the guidance of an experienced mentor

Available Cultural Activities

• National Museum of Anthropology 
• Pyramids of Teotihuacan
• Archaeological site of Monte Alban
• Visit to indigenous communities
• Visit the town of Santa Maria del Tule to see the world’s widest tree
• Market tours
• Food tasting tour
• Visit to a botanical garden

Travel Opportunities

Students will have two weekends free to explore Mexico on their own or take day trips to nearby.

• Visit mineral pools at Hierve del Agua
• Visit the beaches of Huatulco or Puerto Escondido
• Visit the archaeological ruins of Mitla
• Visit the Cola de Serpiente waterfall

Academic Credit

Students have the option to earn three credits of an upper-division journalism elective for this course. The credits will be issued by the University of Jamestown, and we will work with you so they are easily transferable to your university. Transfer credit ultimately depends on a student's home university. The cost for academic credit is $450 (See the FAST FACTS at the top of the page for Program Cost).

Housing

Program participants will stay with host families facilitated by our partner Oaxaca International Spanish School.  Students will have a private bedroom, daily breakfast and comida (the largest meal).

See more about the host families here: https://www.oaxacainternational.com/en/lodging.htm.

Host families are carefully selected and regularly visited in order to ensure students’ safety and comfort. The network of host families is made up of different family types: young families with children, couples without children, empty nesters, etc. Students are asked to provide detailed information about their housing requirements when signing up for our program. The Oaxaca International Spanish School will carefully match students with host families, taking into consideration any allergies, health or diet requirements and specific living requests. 

Equipment

Students should bring their own laptop computers and mobile phones, as well as digital or video cameras and audio recorders if they have them.

Spanish Language Instruction and Interpreters

ieiMedia has partnered with Oaxaca International Spanish Language School and will provide Spanish language instruction based on students language levels and abilities.  

Students

The program is open to English-speaking college students and recent graduates from any school. Students from many universities have participated in past ieiMedia programs, including: American University, Arizona State University, Baylor University, California State University Fullerton, California State University Long Beach, Carleton University, Colorado State University, Georgia College and State University, Georgetown University, Humboldt State University, Indiana University, Iowa State University, Ithaca College, James Madison University, Louisiana State University, New York University, Rider University, Rutgers University, Ryerson University, San Diego State University, San Francisco State University, State University of New York at New Paltz, Syracuse University, Temple University, Truman State University, UCLA, University of Arizona, University of British Columbia, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Kennesaw State University, University of Illinois, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Northern Iowa, University of Southern California, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Virginia Tech, and Washington and Lee University. We’ve also had students from Japan, the United Kingdom, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad participate.

Most of our students are journalism, creative writing or communications majors; those majoring in other subjects are welcome as well. Experience working for a college or professional publication is helpful but not required. The program is open to English-speaking students and recent graduates from around the world.

Graduate students are also invited to apply. We’d be happy to talk with you about supervising an independent project that would qualify for graduate credit at your school — or to offer this experience as a graduate internship.

Faculty 

(subject to change)

PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Director Teresa Puente, an assistant professor at California State University, Long Beach, teaches News Reporting and Ethics, Social Media Communication and Bilingual Magazine Reporting & Production. Her students publish the bilingual magazine ENYE. Puente has spent her career reporting on immigration and Latino issues in the U.S. and has also reported extensively from Mexico. Previously, she was a staff reporter at the Chicago Tribune and was on the editorial board at the Chicago Sun-Times. Her recent journalistic work has been published in Newsweek, TIME, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, The Hill, The Miami Herald, Latino magazine, In These Times and more. She has a M.F.A. from Columbia College Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from Indiana University. She spent her junior year abroad at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid. She has previously taught study abroad courses in Mexico, Peru and Italy.

View complete faculty biographies on our Oaxaca Faculty Page.

Program Cost

The cost is $3,545 plus airfare. The price 3 days in Mexico City and a visit to The National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City; internal round trip flight from Mexico City and Oaxaca; reporting trips and excursions to visit sites and meet with representatives of indigenous communities; housing in Oaxaca with daily breakfast and comida (largest meal of the day); instruction, basic travel insurance, welcome and farewell dinners, and interpreters. An optional 3 credits can be purchased for an additional $450.  

Application Deadline Details

Our application deadline for Summer 2025 programs is February 7, 2025. Applications submitted after the deadline will be accepted on a rolling basis dependent on program capacity. 

Submitting your application by the priority deadline means you will be accepted to a priority spot on the program of your choosing, as well as secure additional time to prepare for payment deadlines and scholarship and financial aid opportunities.  

If you do not have the necessary access to submit your application by the deadline, please reach out to admissions@ieimedia.com to speak with an advisor.

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