Spanish and Sustainability Practices in Costa Rica Summer Program
What's Included
Participants will begin the program in San José. Students will complete a Spanish course, as well as community service, for the first three weeks in the capital. During this time, participants will live with a local Spanish-speaking family. Students will complete the second course, Sustainability Practices, at Finca (property/farm) La Flor in Cartago. The course centers on recycling, forestry, medicinal plant gardening, permaculture, organic agriculture, forestry, clean energy and water management. Participants will live on-site at the local finca (farm). They also work alongside community members as a part of an inclusive employment program. During this time, participants use the Spanish they learned and continue to improve their language skills through Spanish Conversation Sessions. At the conclusion of the program, students will travel to the central Pacific coast for a visit to a national park and a local beach.
Open to intermediate and advanced Spanish speakers
Completed API application
University contact information form
One letter of recommendation
One official transcript
Entry requirement: valid passport with supporting documents
Program Details
What You’ll Study
TOTAL CREDITS - 6 semester credits
Participants will begin the program in San José. Students will complete a Spanish course, as well as community service, for the first three weeks in the capital. During this time, participants will live with a local Spanish-speaking family. Students will complete the second course, Sustainability Practices, at Finca (property/farm) La Flor in Cartago. The course centers on recycling, forestry, medicinal plant gardening, permaculture, organic agriculture, forestry, clean energy and water management. Participants will live on-site at the local finca (farm). They also work alongside community members as a part of an inclusive employment program. During this time, participants use the Spanish they learned and continue to improve their language skills through Spanish Conversation Sessions. At the conclusion of the program, students will travel to the central Pacific coast for a visit to a national park and a local beach.
TRANSCRIPTS
Transcripts are issued jointly by the Universidad Latina de Costa Rica and the International Center for Development Studies (ICDS). Universidad Latina is accredited by the National Council of Higher Education, National Accreditation System for Higher Education (SINAES) and Red Iberoamericana para la Acreditación de la Calidad de la Educación Superior (RIACES). Universidad Latina also is a Project Management Institute Global Accreditation Center for project management education programs.
Courses
COURSE INFORMATION
CREDIT INFORMATION
The International Center for Development Studies (ICDS) issues credit according to the American system; the majority of courses are equivalent to 3 U.S. semester credits. Some language courses meet for a total of 60 contact hours and are equivalent to 3-4 U.S. semester credits.
Intermediate Spanish I (Nivel Intermedio I)
This course allows students to acquire, in a short time, communicative skills to perform effectively, orally or in writing, in a Spanish speaking community.
Intermediate Spanish II (Nivel Intermedio II)
This course is designed to improve communicative competencies in more complex situations by delving into more intricate grammatical structures and focusing on speaking, listening, writing, and reading abilities.
Advanced Spanish I (Nivel Avanzado I)
This course is aimed for students wishing to acquire a higher and more precise level of fluency in oral and written communication in Spanish. The course focuses on topics proposed by the students.
This course is intended for students with an advanced or higher level of proficiency and command of grammatical structures of the Spanish language. This course prepares students for discussing relevant topics of Hispano-American culture and provides them with the tools to perfect their reading and oral comprehension abilities.
Sustainability Practices and Food Security in Rural Costa Rica
This course provides students with an opportunity for a first-hand, practical experience in the field of environment, ecology, and food security in Costa Rica. Topics to be covered include water management, forest ecosystems, permaculture, animal husbandry, as well as organic agriculture and food security policies and practices at Finca La Flor, an agro-ecological farm in Cartago, Costa Rica. Students will gain an understanding of sustainable principles and their application in a tropical, rural setting; gain hands-on experience of tropical agricultural landscapes and dynamics; explore forest ecosystems and participate in forest management and species data; design, develop and implement improvements in sustainable systems; gain insight into the possible implementation of related environmental and sustainable development policy; address the advances and limitations in the application of organic farming, alternative agricultural and animal husbandry methods; grow to appreciate the complexities and challenges in working with participatory processes; and help develop relations, projects and mutual support between the local community and the farm.
API students participate in several excursions per session designed to help familiarize them with areas of their host city, country, and surrounding region. The following is a listing of all excursions for API San José programs. All excursions are subject to change.
Carara National Park
Participants will visit the northernmost Pacific coastal rainforest remaining in Costa Rica and enjoy hikes in the biological reserve with a local guide, getting to know the wildlife in the area. The park is particularly well known for its macaws and other tropical birds. Following the visit to the National Park, students will enjoy visiting a nearby beach.
Housing
Students in San José live with local host families. Host families serve as a unique introduction into Costa Rican culture and may be a married couple with children, a divorced or widowed woman with or without children still at home, or a family with some members living at home and others living outside of the city during the work week. Students may be housed with other API or international students, and in all cases will have an individual room. Students are provided with two meals per day, as well as laundry service once per week.
Students participating in a semester program with the International Center for Development Studies (ICDS) have the option to live either with a host family or in a new student residence as part of the standard program fee. Within the residence, all students have their own bedroom and bathroom within a larger suite of rooms that includes a kitchen (shared among a total of 3-4 residents). These suite-style accommodations may be shared with students outside of API. Students who prefer an efficiency-style suite (i.e., not shared) may do so for an additional fee. Unlike the host family placements, students selecting the student residence are not provided with meals as part of the program fee. API can recommend local restaurants with modestly priced breakfast and dinner options for students who do not wish to prepare all of their meals.
The student residence is not available to ICDS students who select the summer Spanish and Sustainability Practices in Costa Rica program, as time spent in San José will be too short to accommodate a stay at the residence. Summer participants in the Spanish and Health in Latin America program may select the student residence but will be assessed an additional fee to do so. Contact the API Program Coordinator for more information.
