Friendships & Fluency. Your first week is to relax, learn the local lingo and just slow down to our "pura vida" pace of life. Adapting to family and community takes a few days as your orient yourself to different sounds, foods and people. We enjoy making you feel at home. So don't laugh at our English and we promise not to laugh at your Spanish. This is a truly unique opportunity to experience the rural high school culture of Costa Rica. Our "Youth -Lab", brings visiting and local students together in a variety of youth led activities. Additionally, we elevate your Spanish, with individualized Spanish tutoring from our university level instructor. Sharpen your conversation skills or focus on mastering a verb tense. Meet your teacher twice a day or once a week, you decide! Just remember, the key to fluency is putting people first - and having fun doing it!
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Grow with us.Summer is a beginning, a chance to reach out beyond your own world and embrace another. Can travel inspire greater connections? Yes, by going beyond the structure of tourism and engaging the true adventure of real people and community. Adventure leads to new discoveries, it makes us look deeper at ourselves which summons a new strength and resilience. We hope you will grow with us and we hope to grow from you. There is so much to do and we can't do it alone. We invite you during summer - but we hope your experience leads to greater friendships and new opportunities you never imagined possible.
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How do we structure your day?
Short answer- we don't. After all this is a truly local immersion. Each day is unique as we contribute to high school events and community shared activities. So one morning you may help contribute to a small community project and then after lunch you head to the high school to share your soccer skills. The next day has a hike to our neighbor village where we are helping the local school dig a new garden. We are not on a tight schedule, some days you may want to linger at one of our waterfalls or learn how to make local "frescos". You will also have individual opportunities to share your own talents and interests. We do our best to connect you to the things you care about. Each week we give you an outline of the upcoming activities so you will have some choices. Our go with the flow attitude allows us to make things happen and get involved without formality. Slowing the pace and enjoying the moment best defines the "pura vida' mindset.
Peace of Mind.We embrace you into our lives. Taking care of all the details so you can put your energy into living just like a local high school student. We muster with students everyday to coordinate activities and support individual needs. Additionally, we supervise homestays, making sure each student is healthy and happy. We are supported by both the high school directors and village community leadership. Secondly, we invite parents to come get to know us at "pre or post" trip. We'll help with arrangements.
Well, are you ready to join us? It might seem a bit scary, but it won't be you will have plenty of support from local youth! From the beginning we want you to jump into our "Youth-Lab" and share with us all the things we have in common, like music, sports, dance, nature and adventure. Once you get to know us, we'll look at exploring ideas, solutions and community events through our Youth-lab adventures. Our small projects include: Sustainable conservation, team-building, refugee impact, art in action, community ecology and parks, barrio education for kids. We bring healthy, positive energy to amplify the youth voice in our communities. It's a healthy way to meet people, gain awareness and have fun. We know the world is changing, so why not share some laughs trying to make sense of it.
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The leadership.The courage to step out of your comfort zone is the beginning of leadership, true leadership is about creating deeper and honest connections. During your journey with us you'll meet the caring people who lead our social and environmental programs. Openess is the beauty of our small community. We know we have differences - we must find common ground and bring our shared values forward.
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Next steps...Summer is the best time for self-discovery. Let's reach beyond our own culture and find adventure in what is possible when we open ourselves to new people and explore new ideas on how to embrace the future with joy and wisdom. To join us next summer we encourage you to hold your spot below. With enrollment limited we maintain a truely engaging high school summer experience.
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Our Community Challenge - 50 hrs.
Creative Center for Kids.
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Youth Service Encounters
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In addition to our service to youth, we collaborate with local non-profits from environmental to special cultural celebrations. As part of the community, we take advantage of every opportunity to partake in the fun.
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