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Voices from Monteverde

Overview
Study in Monteverde, Costa Rica the place National Geographic designated as "the jewel in the crown of "cloud forest " reserves” and one of the most unique and fragile environments on Earth. Live with families in the rural community of San Luis and work alongside farmers who sought to establish fair trade cooperatives before the term became widely used. Explore how international and national trends and policies have supported and impeded local sustainable development, environmental conservation and social justice efforts. Meet and talk with local farmers, business owners, educators, researchers and Quaker and Tico community members who are working, on a grass roots level, to create greater equity and ecological resiliency in the bioregion.

Engage in an academically rigorous, field-based course of study that fosters community engagement, cultural immersion, language study, service, personal reflection and an integrated investigation of the social, environmental, cultural and personal dimensions of sustainability. Discover the ways in which the lessons learned in this unique bioregion can support you in developing the knowledge, skills and experience necessary to create positive change in your home community.

Highlights
	Explore the ecological and cultural diversity and stunning beauty of Costa Rica during an initial orientation journey. After a few days in the capital, getting a sense of the Central Valley, you will travel to the Monteverde Zone and immediately spend three days immersed in a rugged rainforest to get to know the climate, the ecosystem and one another.
	Study Tropical Biology and Ecology and conduct field based research with Monteverde Institute's international experts in one of the world’s leading conservation and research stations in the tropics.
	Live with welcoming families in idyllic, pastoral San Luis, a farming community that values family and community solidarity above all else. Coffee is the primary crop in this valley and Fair Trade and cooperatives form the economic structure of this area, which is a patchwork of sustainable organic gardens, banana trees and dairy cows.
	Take your Spanish to the next level with daily language instruction and limitless opportunities to engage with locals (including home-stays, service projects, research and interviewing, field excursions, etc.)
	Sit in quiet meditation with local Quakers who immigrated to Costa Rica in the 50’s -because of the absence of a standing military- after serving prison time for refusing to sign up for the draft.
	Fall Semester: Travel to Panama to experience the cultural richness and ecological variance on the Caribbean side of the country. Stay in Boca del Toros, one of the most beautiful and ecologically diverse beaches in Central America.
	Spring Semester: Travel to Nicaragua to experience first-hand the contrast between the prosperity and tranquility brought about by the policies of environmental protection and peace in Costa Rica and the history of upheaval in Nicaragua. Visit and do service on local sustainable development projects.

About the Monteverde Institute

Monteverde is a living laboratory. It is a mecca for research, a melting pot of cultures, a myriad of microclimates, a magnet for eco-tourism, and a meeting place for artists, scientists and great minds from all walks of life to develop a just, sustainable culture and environment. An area of outrageous bio-diversity with 30 kinds of hummingbirds, 2,500 species of plants, including 420 orchids (with more being discovered all the time) , Monteverde contains the largest private reserve system in all of Central America. Nestled high in the Tilaran Mountains, the mission of the Monteverde Institute is to advance sustainable living at the local and global level through place-based education, applied research, and collaborative community programs. The Monteverde Institute is an international research and educational center. A non-profit association founded in 1986, its 38-acre campus forms part of the famous Monteverde Reserve Complex, an area of natural preserves that protect more than 75,000 acres of endangered tropical forest. This location, along with its cultural mix of Ticos (Costa Ricans) Quakers and others, underlines the central importance of Monteverde Institute's commitment to sustainability, diversity and environmental and social justice.

Academic Credit
Earn 16 transferable credits through the University of Massachusetts Amherst

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Courses

Ecological Relationships In The Tropics (Biology 497M. and 497L) (4 credits, including lab)

Use nature as a laboratory, developing and practicing field methods in order to study and observe the diversity of life forms and interactions between plants, animals, microorganisms and their physical environment. The primary level of focus is on whole organism biology, ecological communities, and ecosystems, including both an introduction to methods for sampling and observing a variety of organisms. Students learn not only how to conduct research, but to conduct original research in their own areas of expertise or interest.

Community Service Learning In Costa Rica: Theory And Practice (Srvclrng 390CR) (4 credits)

This field-based experience, combined with readings, dialogue, reflection and a project paper, explores the history, methods, and meanings of sustainable development.as it applies to a small farming community in Costa Rica. Students learn skills in Appreciative Inquiry and Action Research, and help select, implement, record, and evaluate their service project(s).

Sustainable Develpment and Social Justice (Polisci 397LR and Polisci H397LR) (4 credits, including Honors colloquium)

This course explores Costa Rica and Monteverde’s historical evolution, seeking to understand the factors that affect their social, political and economic and natural environment. Explore the profound effects that income distribution, the concentration of wealth and land, and the transition of a rural way of life into a tourist destination and service economy on the efforts of a community to protect the natural environment and its way of life.

Spanish Language and Costa Rican Culture
(4 Credits) (Choose one below)
• Introductory Spanish and Costa Rican Culture (Spanish 197CR)

This course enables students to communicate effectively in clear and correct prose in a style appropriate to subject, occasion, and audience. Using authentic, short texts (magazine articles, poems, stories, etc.) students develop basic comprehension. And the capacity to reflect upon and discuss individual, political, environmental, economic, and social aspects of life in Costa Rica and Latin America.

• Intermediate Spanish and Costa Rican Culture (Spanish 297CR)

Students further develop and improve communicative skills to be able to understand the main ideas of complex texts on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in diverse areas of specialization, and interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity. Special emphasis will be given to conversation, ecological issues, and Costa Rican culture.

• Advanced Spanish and Costa Rican Culture (Spanish 397CR)

This course is for students who have a mastery of grammatical structures and are interested in achieving seamless oral and written communication. At this level, reading, discussion, and analysis are all emphasized, with a particular focus on life in Costa Rica and Latin America. . Students analyze and further develop elements of rhetoric and composition in order to practice advanced writing style.

View the full curriculum for this program. »