Global Exchange Costa Rica

Dear Educator,

We are writing you to introduce an exciting service opportunity for students and faculty.  Participating in service outside of one’s own cultural boundaries is an experience that can be life-changing. While volunteering in one’s own community is important, we often lose sight of ourselves in a global context. We, as global citizens, have an opportunity to reach beyond our own communities and gain perspective on how other people live and what they value.  

By way of introduction, our names are Allyson Chapman and Winona Brown. We graduated from Allendale Columbia School in 2009. In our last two years of high school, we had the opportunity to go on a service trip to a small town called Orosi in the central valley of Costa Rica.  There we spent the majority of our days renovating an elementary school.  We installed a plumbing system, painted murals, replaced sinks, and as we worked, we were able to spend time with the kids, practice our Spanish, and form meaningful relationships. In our time off we traveled to many of the breathtaking natural sites that this lush country has to offer. This experience was life-changing for us. It was the first time we had truly been immersed in a community that had less than we did. We saw the importance of engaging ourselves globally and being a part of a larger world. We came to appreciate the education that we were receiving and the resources that we had so often taken for granted.  What we took from these trips, we have not found anywhere else, and although we have both graduated from college, we have been thinking increasingly about our experience in Orosi. We know our time there is not finished; we want to share the experience we had with others.  

We will be running Service Trips in the central valley of Costa Rica starting in December, following the Allendale Columbia School model. We are working with teacher Callie Rabe, who has spearheaded and organized the Allendale Columbia trips for the past 6 years. The trip ideally lasts nine days, the typical duration of a school break, but the length can be adjusted to specific needs or restrictions. The cost of the trip is approximately $2,500 per student and faculty chaperones participate for free. Aside from this being the most affordable service trip overseas, it is designed to give students the opportunity to do actual service work for the majority of the time that they are in Costa Rica, thus placing the emphasis on engaging themselves globally. Your itinerary will be arranged and reviewed with you prior to the trip, and your flight, housing and dining arrangements will be taken care of.  We will be present as your English-speaking guides for the duration of the trip to help you to experience the culture and beauty of Costa Rica.  Therefore, speaking Spanish is not a requirement. Trips will also be accompanied by a local contractor, Leo Miranda Valerin, who is experienced in planning and running school trips.  To read more about this trip in past years, you can visit: http://www.allendalecolumbia.org/cf_news/view.cfm?newsid=212',600,600.

We hope that you are excited about providing your students with this life-changing opportunity.  We hope you will make contact with us to discuss this further! Please e-mail us at SeeCostaRica2013@gmail.com with your interest.  We hope to work with you soon and we are excited about the prospect of sharing this rich experience with your students and faculty!

 

With Anticipation,

Allyson Chapman and Winona Brown