OSEA Ethnographic Methods Field School / Heritage Ethnography, Visual Ethnography / Summer Study Abroad / Community Tourism Sustainable Tourism Field Studies / International Service Learning in Yucatan. Maya Culture and Tourism Development / Open School of Ethnography and AnthropologyOSEA Schedule of Fees OSEA Summer Field Study Abroad Programs in Interdisciplinary Cultural Anthropology . TESL, Teaching English Service Learning, Ethnography of Archaeology, Heritge Ethnography, Tourism Studies, Intensive Maya Language Immersion, Learn Maya, teaching Maya as a second language acquisition, Mexico. Quetzil Castaneda is the founding director of OSEA the Open School of Ethnography and Anthropology. Specialist in Maya language, archaeological tourism and heritage, ethnographic methods, experimental ethnography and experimental fieldwork.
Online Applications Please note that this system does not support "save and resume (later)". You must complete the entire application at one sitting.
Please review the information that you will be required to submit on the online application form. Prepare your narrative answers in advance so that you can quickly cut and paste into the form field.
1. OSEA Enrollment Form
(all applicants for all Ethnography and Maya language Programs, including applicants for Work Study and Internships submit this form)
2. Homestay Form
— all programs; this form is essential to learn of your personal preferences and needs for living within the cultural and linguistic immersion contexts of OSEA.
3. Spanish Self Assessment
— all programs. Native or Heritage Speakers complete 1st page only
4. Spanish Instructor Evaluation
— Native and Bilingual Heritage Speakers can complete & submit this form for themselves
6. Send unofficial transcripts by email attachment to quetzil@osea-cite.org
Review Questions for each Online Application
Intensive Spanish Immersion Courses
(click on title for online app form)
To enroll in the Spanish course, participants need only complete the Spanish Self-Assessment and to have a Spanish professor complete the Spanish Evaluation form. These are primarily check box forms that do not have narrative questions. You will need to have ready at hand contact information for the person who is completing the Spanish assessment form.
Participants in the Spanish courses by default are provided Posada lodging and meals. Please complete the online Homestay, Lodging & Meals Preference Form in order to specify your request.
Ethnography Field School:(click on title for online app form)
Use the form at link above to enroll in any one of the OSEA Ethnography Programs
Maya Language Immersion
(click on title for online app form)
Please have ready: contact information for your letter of recommendation; contact information for your FLAS representative if applicable (that is, if you are a graduate student and at a university with a Title VI National Resource Center in Latin American & Caribbean Studies); a max.. of 500 word statement on your interests in Maya language and culture, including your research needs, motivations, expectations, and goals in studying Maya.
Spanish Self-Assessment Proficiency Form for all applicants, all programs
If you are a Native Speaker or a fluent Heritage Speaker, you must also fill out this form for our records. Instructions for how to make it pro forma are provided in the form. When submitting Self-Assessment, write in "native/fluent speaker" in required fill-in text boxes.
Unofficial Transcripts. An enrollment form is not complete without submission of transcripts. Enrollment in Spanish is the exception that does require transcripts to be submitted. You may have transcripts sent directly to OSEA by your university or you may send unofficial yet current copies in your possession.
Hardcopy of transcripts should be sent by you or your university to 2244 Martha Street, Bloomington IN 47408. Electronic file transcripts can be sent to quetzil@osea-cite.org as an email attachment
Evaluation of Applicant's Spanish Proficiency. This should be filled out by a Spanish language instructor at your university, college or other language instruction program. Native speakers and fluent heritage speakers need not complete this form. When submitting Self-Assessment, write in "native/fluent speaker" in required fill-in text boxes.
Letter of Recommendation Form, for OSEA Ethnography Field School, SELT Teach English, Maya Health and Healing, and Maya Immersion Programs. Not required for Spanish Courses.
Transcripts Transcripts are required for all OSEA Programs with the exception of Spanish.
hese need not be official transcripts that originate directly from your university. While you may have your school send the transcript directly to us, we would actually prefer that you scan a copy of your current official transcripts that you have in your possession and send it as an attachment. This allows you to save the cost of purchasing a new official transcript
⇒ Send transcripts as an attachment to quetzil@osea-cite.org.
⇒ Send hardcopy transcripts to: 2244 Martha Street, Bloomington IN 47408
⇒ Online transcript submission is no longer a current option
Letters of Recommendation
OSEA requires only one letter of recommendation for each of its programs. A second letter is optional and at the discretion of the applicant.
Letters of Recommendation are not required for the Intensive Spanish Immersion.
We ask that you find letter writers who can address these three areas of assessment:
(1). Academic-Intellectual abilities and performance;
(2). Experience in or potential to adapt to study abroad or other off-campus activities cross-cultural immersion contexts;
(3). Personal character.
Spanish Proficiency Forms: Who Needs to Submit Them?
Every applicant to every program is required to submit the Self-Assessment Spanish Proficiency Form. Every applicant to every program, with the exception of the Intensive Maya Immersion, to also submit a third party Spanish Evaluation Form or letter of recommendation about the applicant's level of Spanish and suggested target areas to prioritize in learning.
Participants in Intensive Maya Immersion need not have a Spanish evaluation. So long as the Self-Assessment Spanish is submitted we do not need a third-person evaluation. Be aware: A little Spanish for this program helps, but high proficiency in Spanish might actually be detrimental to the immersion learning as it could provide an easy escape route or option to pushing oneself to master Maya in all contexts!
Native or Heritage Speakers of Spanish.
If you are fluent speaker of Spanish because of being a native speaker or a bilingual heritage speaker of Spanish you are still required to fill out the Spanish Language Self Assessment. However, you need not fill out the entire form of the Self - Assessment, as well if you may complete the first part of the form. Just send us an email at onlineapps@osea-cite.org to let us know that you have completed the first half of the forms and are a fluent native speaker. We need to have these forms filled with just this part of your information in order to have a complete application file for you. Thank you!
Online Application Short Essay Questions for Ethnography Field School and Maya Health and Healing
OSEA is interested to know about your unique individual skills, experiences, strengths and weaknesses. The questions below help us to better understand who you are and how you will fit into the program of cultural immersion, language learning, and field research. It makes little difference whether you have extensive or no experience traveling abroad, or whether you have skills that derive from non-academic employment or not. OSEA welcomes a diversity of applicants and accepts students with a WIDE range of life experiences, skills and motivations. We benefit from knowing about your unique attributes in order to create a learning, training, and personal experience that is more attuned to your individual needs and life histories.
The questions below are intended as a means for you to help us create a more vibrant and relevant program. Please address the questions below to the extent that you wish.
Short Narrative Answer, Max. 500 Words. Why do you want to participate in OSEA's programs? In your answer you may find it useful to address your interest in the subject matter of the OSEA programs and how your participation in OSEA will contribute to the realization of your own long-or short-term educational, career and/or personal goals and development.
Max. 250 Words: Describe your participation in any collaborative projects that may have involved research, teaching, or community involvement. If you have participated in such activities, we are interested to know such things as: What did you do? What roles did you assume and why? What did you get out of your participation? What did you contribute to the project? How do you work with others?
Max. 200 Words: Describe any experiences you have had living or traveling outside of the USA or any other cross-cultural experiences and personal history that may help to enrich your participation in and contribution to the OSEA Program.
Max. 200 Words: If you find it relevant, please describe those aspects of your work history or background that may have provided you with technical or other skills, tools, aptitudes, and or personal qualities that will contribute to a more rewarding participation in the OSEA Program.
Teach English Community Action Research Application Questions Max 300 Words. Tell us about your interests, motives, and goals in learning Maya. In particular let us know why you seek an intensive program that is based on linguistic and cultural immersion in rural Maya communities as well as your expectations about the results of your participation in the OSEA program.
Application and Processing Fee
Please see our Payment Process for instructions.
Troubleshooting Application Problems
If you have any questions or difficulties with this system please contact us as soon as possible by email at quetzil@osea-cite.org. If you have an urgent concern you may also reach us by phone at 812.327.5845. Thank you for your interest in OSEA!
