BCC Travel Study Abroad Program

Costa Rica, land of many natural wonders: Caribbean and Pacific coastlines, luscious rainforests, abundant animal and plant life, and volcanoes.

Students immerse themselves in language and culture while surrounded by unparalleled natural beauty and the warm, welcoming people of Costa Rica.

The Costa Ricans are dedicated to promoting harmony between nature, community development, and economic growth.

They have made a major commitment to protecting the nation's natural resources and beauty while preserving its long tradition of political democracy and stability.

Costa Rica offers students a safe and accessible place to study and to explore the peaceful beauty of her natural treasures.

Waterfall in Costa Rica

It offers reliable public transportation, the highest literacy rate in Central America and an excellent health care system.

Whether studying Spanish or researching rainforest ecosystems, the congeniality of the people, the steaming volcanoes, pristine beaches, virgin forests, and the unique birds, mammals and ocean life all combine to make Costa Rica an idyllic place to live and study.

Site
Students live and study in beautiful Alajuela, located just 30 minutes from the capital, San Jose. Alajuela is a small town surrounded by coffee and sugar plantations.

Courses are held at the Instituto de Cultura y Lengua Costarricense (ICLC), Costa Rica's premier language institute.

ICLC language school is set on a hillside surrounded with tropical flowers and fruits in the outskirts of Alajuela.

Courses

Students have the option to take 10 or 5 credits of Spanish at ICLC. Classes are taught by qualified ICLC instructors.

Spanish classes meet for 4 hours per day and have generally no more than 4 students per class, allowing plenty of time to improve speaking and listening skills.

Students who take 10 credits of Spanish register for 5 additional credits in coursework taught by WCCCSA faculty. Students enrolled for only 5 credits of Spanish take 10 additional credits of coursework taught by WCCCSA faculty.

Student Studying in Costa Rica Introduction to Latin American Studies
Learn about Latin America by getting an overview of its culture and history—and then relating the academic facts and concepts to your experience residing in a society in the heart of the region. Study of the values, the groups, the economics, the customs, and the cultural expressions of the region will help to make sense of and enrich your encounters with the people, the institutions, the practices, and the landscapes as you come to know them using Alajuela on the Central Plateau as your home base. Students will use a journal to relate what they experience during their sojourn with what they learn of Latin America in the classroom and in their readings.

Contemporary Latin American Literature
Read the works of the great Latin American authors in the setting that gave them their inspiration. The twentieth century has been a time of intense imagination and creativity across Latin America—composing Latin America’s gift to world literature. Where better to understand magic realism or the Latin concern for social justice or postmodern irony expressed in the works of the region’s imaginative writers? The readings in this course will become a literary tour from the great classics of the “boom” era to more recent experiments in narrative and poetic expression. The Costa Rican ground beneath your feet will give new meaning to this marvelous body of works.

Excursions/Activities

Orientation Tour
Enjoy a familiarization tour of both Alajuela and San Jose. The tour will include visits to the National Theater, the Cultural Plaza, the Jade Museum and the University of Costa Rica.

Bird in Costa Rica

Monteverde
Travel to the heart of Costa Rica to spend 2 nights and 3 days in a cloud forest preserve! The beautiful surrounding area is home to the rare golden toad, grate green macaws, sloths, 50 varieties of hummingbirds and more than 490 species of butterflies.

This excursion includes round-trip transportation, and meals and accommodations at the Ecolodge San Luis. It also includes transportation to and from the Skywalk and entrance to the Skywalk in Monteverde.

Local Sights
Field trips are planned as part of some courses. Local sights include: Costa Rican Art Museum, The National Museum, The Juan Santamaria Historical Museum, theater, and parks.

Housing

Students live in Homestays with local Costa Rican families. Each student will have a private, furnished room and two meals per day, breakfast and dinner. Lunch is not included.

Homestays are located within a 30 minute bus ride from ICLC. Students are encouraged to interact with homestay families as much as possible to facilitate learning the Spanish language and culture, and to get to know the host family.

Students are expected to respect the norms and customs of their host family.