Why Pay for a Remote Internship?

Here at Kaya Responsible Travel, responsibility is the name of our game, and with that approach we have developed a line of Remote Internships combining 6-8 weeks of online project work with engaging virtual cultural programming to immerse yourself in the host country from anywhere in the world.

Why Pay for a Remote Internship?

Kaya’s Remote Internships have a fee associated with them, as do all of our programs. Not sure why you have to pay to work from home? We understand your question inside and out. In fact, we’ve been grappling with it in various forms for years, and so have our participants.

Luckily, it’s an easy question for us to answer because it’s at the heart of what we do. At our core, we are a responsible travel organization, which means we treat our community partners and participants with the utmost respect and consider the quality of their experiences carefully. In order to be responsible and sustainable, we have incorporated a variety of cultural components into our remote internships. This helps create fertile ground for cross-cultural exchange filled with mutual understanding and growth, and also provides proper support for the intern. We felt that this was especially important in a remote setting to make sure you get a comprehensive feel for Morocco, South Africa, Vietnam or Ecuador from afar. 

The question remains, though: Why pay? Well, this level of support and guidance takes work, and we want to compensate our community partners fairly. We also want to provide a quality experience for you, one that has a lasting impact. Consider the following inclusions:

• Weekly “face to face” check-ins and feedback sessions with Project Supervisor
• Weekly “face to face” check-ins and reflection sessions with Country Site Director
• Weekly cultural workshops with Country Site Director to attend live or watch later (1-2 hours/workshop)
• Weekly cultural exchanges with a local buddy, with prompts to facilitate discussion
• A discussion forum to help interns form connections with other interns
• A toolkit to help interns understand their individual and cultural work styles, and learn to bridge cultural differences through interactive guides

We are proud to be able to offer these resources, but they do require valuable time and energy from our hard-working and dedicated partners on the ground. In many ways, the support needed for an online experience is as extensive and demanding as an in-person one.

We understand that cost matters, but we urge you to weigh cost and benefit. We believe that our remote internships provide more than professional experience alone. They lay the groundwork for future professional and personal exploration, your global network, and, we hope, future travels.

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