Wonderful experiences while also learning about sustainability!!
I really liked this program because it was a smaller group of people. This allowed me to truly get to know all the people on my program and have positive relationships with the professors. For some of the classes, the professors took our group on field trips to see what we were learning in class out in real life. I really appreciated learning sustainability from a different country perspective and learning about issues Costa Rica faces. The city of San Jose was very manageable. It was not too big so you could easily navigate it. I found so many cool, little neighborhoods with cute cafés and shops. San José was a great central point for traveling because it is the capital and also located in the middle of the country. I was able to buy cheap bus tickets to anywhere in the country very easily. Additionally, I felt very safe when traveling in Costa Rica because the locals are very nice and helpful. They are also very patient when you are trying to practice your Spanish. I think one of the most helpful things in this program was having program directors on sight in San José. They were API employees but from Costa Rica. My program directors helped us with anything we needed, plus they were so knowledgable about the country and its history. I would have lunch with them every other week and they would just check in and give us recommendations if we wanted to travel somewhere. They made all of us feel so at home. The academics for this program were more intensive than I had anticipated because we spent Monday through Thursday in class all day, similar to high school. I wished I could have had more breaks throughout the day to explore the city. I also wish the program of ICDS would have given us opportunities to meet locals, such as a speaking club or something similar to that. I found it very hard to meet local students because the program classes were in English and we were separated from the main college classes. To meet people and learn the language you really have to take initiative and not be afraid of messing up! Overall, this is a wonderful program. I learned so much about my major and also about this country.
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